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A comment on Soviet Union sold titanium to US believing they needed it for pizza ovens. Parent comment

Re:Soviet Union sold titanium to US believing they needed it... by satiric on Sunday June 18, 2023 @06:24PM (#36385157)
Forget wood fired pizza, titanium fired pizza has a way better flavor.

I wonder if they really used the pizza alibi for all the titanium or if they diversified. Did they really put all their eggs in one basket?

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Re:Soviet Union sold titanium to US believing they needed it... by taf2 on Sunday June 18, 2023 @06:51PM (#36385356)
Can’t wait for the YouTube video about this - should be a good DIY series
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Re:Soviet Union sold titanium to US believing they needed it... by Bluestrike2 on Sunday June 18, 2023 @07:36PM (#36385649)
They used multiple front companies and routed orders through third-world countries to buy the needed ore. More than likely, pizza ovens--or more likely, I'm guessing unspecified parts for pizza ovens--were just one of many cover stories used by those companies, and at least some of them were probably more believable than pizza ovens. You wouldn't use the same cover story for all the companies making the purchased.

Plus, titanium dioxide is used as a pigment, which would have reasonably explained a great deal of the rutile ore they purchased.

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