MOSCOW complains of lack of financing for destruction of chemical weapons

MOSCOW (AFP) Nov 10, 2004
 Russia on Wednesday said it would boost its own spending in 2005 on a programme to destroy its vast arsenal of chemical weapons, complaining of inadequate assistance from foreign donors led by the United States.

Russia still has a stockpile of around 40,000 tonnes of chemical warheads. It has stated its intention to destroy 20 percent of the stockpile by 2007 and to eliminate it by 2012.

Leaders of the Group of Seven most industralised countries (G7) in 2002 offered up to 20 billion dollars to Russia to dispose of its chemical weapons and military plutonium stocks and secure facilities from the threat of terrorists.

Chemical disarmament is "an international problem" and must be resolved "with the international community on an equal basis," said Alexander Kharichev, secretary of of the country's chemical weapons disarmament commission.

"But for the moment, 90 percent of the funding is coming from the Russian budget. Given the situation, we are doubling the financing for this programme," added Kharichev, who was participating in a conference in Moscow on chemical disarmament.

In 2004, the Russian state devoted 5.4 billion roubles (186 million dollars) for chemical disarmament and for next year has allocated 11.2 billion roubles (386 millions dollars), the official said.

But between 1992 and 2003, Russia received only 217 million dollars from abroad for the programme, said Viktor Kholstov, deputy head of the federal industry agency which is responsible for overseeing the chemical disarmament.

"Russia only gets 30 percent of the sums announced by the Americans in their aid programmes," the rest going on "organisational costs" of the US institutions and entreprises which participate in the programme, Kharichev told AFP.

The official, however, praised cooperation with Germany and the Netherlands, which he said "use more transparent schemes."

Russia has the world's largest chemical weapons stockpile, including stocks of sarin and VX nerve gas.

Dismantling its stocks of military plutonium and chemical weapons, seen as vulnerable to theft in the corruption-tainted post-Soviet era, was made a priority goal in international efforts to halt proliferation, prompting leaders at the G7 summit at Kananaskis, in Canada, in 2002 to offer up to 20 billion dollars in aid to dispose of them