Russia teaching Iran to build missiles: Post

WASHINGTON, March 23: Russia’s top intelligence agency has been recruiting Russian scientists to travel to Iran and teach Iraninans how to build long-distance missiles that can carry high explosives, the Washington Post reported today.

The Russian Federal Security Service, the successor to the KGB, has been quietly recruiting Russian scientists to work in Iran over "the past several years", according to the Post, which cites Russian and diplomatic sources in Moscow.

Once the scientists arrive in Iran they negotiate contracts with their hosts to cover up any direct involvement of the Russian government, according to the newspaper.

Russia’s Federal Security Service, like the KGB, oversees its country’s sensitive weapons factories and the high technology institutes where the scientists are recruited from. The Russian government has denied in the past the existence of a deliberate policy of transferring missile technology.