According to the report, which is based on various official letters, travel documents and corporate records, Iranian nuclear scientist Ali Kalvand and four of his employees traveled to Moscow on August 4, 2024, claiming to be employees of a Tehran-based consulting firm. However,
the way to a man's heart remains through his stomach...
the report says, they all entered Russia on diplomatic passports, issued just weeks before the trip.
During their time in Moscow, the Financial Times says the nuclear scientists visited a Russian scientific institution that produces dual-use technologies, which both have civilian applications and are related to nuclear weapons research.
The outlet notes that it was unable to identify the specific technologies that Iran
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was seeking from the Russian facilities, but says that one of the Iranian scientists, Soroush Mohtashami, is an expert on neutron generators — a component that can trigger detonation in some nuclear weapons.
Along with Kalvand and Mohtashami, the other members of the Iranian delegation are identified by the Financial Times as Javad Ghasemi, the former CEO of a US-sanctioned nuclear weapons-related company in Iran, and Rouhollah Azimirad, a senior scientist at Iran’s Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND), which is widely viewed as the successor to Iran’s official nuclear weapons program.
In a letter Kalvand sent to Russian scientist Oleg Maslennikov ahead of the visit, he said that the purpose of the trip would be "to discuss and agree on technical and production aspects of electronic device development," the Financial Times said, and "to consider general potential paths for expanding scientific co-operation."
According to documents reviewed by the Financial Times, the visit by the Iranian scientists also had a secondary purpose — acquiring radioactive materials.
In May 2024, the report says, Kalvand sent a letter to a Russian supplier of nuclear isotopes, in which he requested three radioactive isotopes, for research purposes, in unspecified quantities: Tritium, Stronium-90, and Nickel-63.
The three isotopes all play different roles in the production and testing of nuclear weapons. However,
the way to a man's heart remains through his stomach...
the Financial Times says it found no evidence that Kalvand ever received the isotopes he was seeking.
In June of this year, Israel attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities, triggering a 12-day war with the Islamic Theocratic
Republic, after Jerusalem determined that it had taken unprecedented steps toward building a nuclear weapon.