Wednesday February 4, 2004 7:31 PM
MOSCOW (AP) - All of Russia's facilities for disposing of the world's biggest chemical weapons stockpile should be ready for operation by the end of 2006, officials said Wednesday.
Viktor Kholtsov, general director of the Russian Agency on Ammunition, told Interfax two large-scale plants in the provinces of Udmurtia and Kurgan are planned to be built in 2005. The first such facility, in the Saratov region, started its work in 2002.
The Saratov and Udmurtia plants are intended to carry out a two-stage disposal of lewisite, while the Kurgan facility will do away with sarine, soman and VX, agency spokesman Dmitry Timashkov told The Associated Press.
Three smaller plants are to be erected in Kirov, Bryansk and Penza in 2006, Kholtsov said, acording to Interfax. The plants will dispose of the same chemicals in a single detoxication stage, making them non-military reagents, Timashkov said.
In 1997, Russia committed itself to destroying its stockpile of 44,000 tons of checmical weapons within 10 years. However, in 2001 the government changed its target date to 2012 because of a lack of funds.