[originaltext] Russia applied for a license last year to import two high perf

Russia applied for a license last year to import two high performance computers from the United States for use by its non-military laboratories. But request was refused because of American concern, for the machine would be used in the Russian nuclear programme. The State Department discovered in January this year that the computers had, in fact, been sold to Russia. Both the Department of Commerce and the Custom Service launched investigations into how the computers ended up there and how to pull them out. But eight months have gone, and the United States has been unable to resolve the issue. The State Department spokesman says he thought the computers are still being used in the Russian nuclear weapons programme. Moscow offered last month to move the computers to new locations for use in non-weapons related programmes. But Washington has yet to receive any formal proposal, and questions remain both as how these computers slipped through the net and whether any others could have done the same.