The draft Russian budget for 2005 allocates R11.116bn for the national programme to dispose of stockpiles of particularly dangerous weapons of mass destruction, compared with R5.6bn in 2004, Aleksandr Kharichev, secretary of the Russian State Committee for Chemical Disarmament.

He also said that Wednesday's [6 October] meeting of the state commission in Moscow decided first and foremost to allocate funds for antiterrorist, fire, technological and ecological security in the storage and disposal of the chemical weapons. Priority areas include ensuring reliable operation of the first chemical weapons disposal facility, in the village of Gornyy, Saratov Region. Completion of the first phase of a second chemical weapons disposal facility, in the village of Kambarka, Udmurtia, and the first phase of the third facility, in the village of Maradykovo, Kirov Region, is planned for 2005.

The chairman of the state committee, the Russian president's official representative in the Volga Federal District Sergey Kiriyenko, told the meeting "financial support for the disposal of chemical weapons does not only apply to the Russian part of the programme". "We are trying to increase funding for the programme from our foreign partners, too," he said.

Source: ITAR-TASS news agency, Moscow
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