Russia urges UN to revise global arms export system

MOSCOW, November 19 (RIA Novosti) - Russia has called on the United Nations to revise the international system of arms exports in view of the August conflict with Georgia, Russia's envoy to the UN said on Wednesday.

Russia has accused Ukraine and the U.S. of delivering arms to Georgia prior to and during the five-day conflict over South Ossetia in August. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on October 2 that he considered alleged arms supplies a criminal act.

"Illegal weapons, including small arms, fall into the hands of terrorists and irresponsible users. The Caucasus crisis in August this year showed that the current mechanisms of weapons transfers, including the Wassenaar Arrangement, are inadequate," Vitaly Churkin told a UN Security Council session on Wednesday.

The Wassenaar Arrangement, an arms export control regime with 40 participating states, was established in 1996 in the Dutch town of Wassenaar.