Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 24, 1991 TAG: 9103240064
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: BERLIN LENGTH: Medium
A slightly used MiG-23 attack aircraft? It's there.
So is an MI-8 helicopter - at $140,000, the best deal going, confides Col. Alexander Pordunov, who squires visitors through the air force part of the sale.
Something smaller? A few thousand 57mm hand grenades? Or how about a gas mask, a landing boat or one of the 29 Soviet air bases in eastern Germany?
They, too, are up for grabs, as part of a one-time-only series of limited, special offers tied to what amounts to a Soviet military going-out-of-business sale.
Before the Soviets complete the withdrawal of their 380,000 troops and 180,000 dependents from eastern Germany by the end of 1994, they hope to sell hundreds of millions of dollars worth of equipment, plus buildings and other base structures valued at $7 billion.
The Soviet military has thrown open the gates at its sprawling Berlin garrison to show prospective buyers just what it had to offer.
There have been interesting nibbles.
Pordunov said one German businessman wanted to buy a MiG-21 jet aircraft to place atop his restaurant, while another businessman wanted a vintage MI-2 helicopter for his back-yard garden.
"Our price was too high," he said. "There was no sale."
"We don't know how much we've sold, but there have been lots of people around," noted the colonel known as Glum, whose faced darkened further at the idea of selling some of the 15,000 Soviet uniform hats on a piece-by-piece basis.
So far, he said, 20 hats had been sold.
by CNB