Russia Destroys One-Third of Its Chemical Weapons
Posted on: Tuesday, 29 April 2008, 12:00 CDT
Russia has destroyed 27 per cent of its chemical weapons, the head of the department of convention problems of chemical and biological weapons of the Russian Federal Industry Agency, Yelena Ratushkina, said.
"As of April 18, 2008, Russia has destroyed over 10,000 tonnes of chemical weapons of category I, or 27 per cent of reserves. All the reserves available at the facility Gorny have been destroyed there, and the facilities Kambarka and Maradykovo are continuing disposal operations. The Shchuchye facility is planned to be put in operation this year," she said.
"Russia is fully committed to its obligations, and is consistently doing everything necessary for completing the destruction of reserves of chemical weapons. The efforts taken by Moscow to destroy 27 per cent of the available reserves of chemical weapons are a convincing confirmation of our plans," Ratushkina said.
"Considering the scale of the tasks, the significance of the international community in the implementation of these projects is difficult to overevaluate. Russia has the main burden of expense for chemical disarmament. The cost of the national programme of the destruction of chemical weapons is over 9bn dollars. In the year 2007 alone Russia has spent on the programme over 1bn dollars, and funds in the amount of 1.5bn dollars have been issued for 2008," Ratushkina said.
The launch of the disposal facility in Shchuchye in 2008 will be a good contribution to the disposal of chemical weapons.
"The funds allocated by Britain will play an important role in the destruction of about 1.9m of artillery munitions containing nerve gas," Ratushkina said.
The deputy director of the British Ministry of Defence's non- proliferation department, James Harrison, in turn said that the general financing of global risk reduction programmes would continue, but more funds would go into disposal of nuclear waste.
Originally published by ITAR-TASS news agency, Moscow, in English 1104 29 Apr 08.
(c) 2008 BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
Source: BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union
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