Created: 26.07.2005 17:36 MSK
About 33,000 rounds of ammunition beyond their safe storage
life have been found at Russian chemical weapons storage facilities.
“Checks have revealed 11,810 aviation and over 21,000 artillery munitions
are beyond their safe storage life,” a source in the Federal Industrial Agency
in charge of the destruction of chemical weapons was quoted by Interfax news
agency as saying.
“The guarantee terms of storage for all the munitions have expired, and the
terms of their safe keeping are also expiring,” the source said. He added
that under a schedule, unsafe munitions are being destroyed at the storage
facilities for safety reasons.
For instance, 23 faulty rocket warheads loaded with sarin have been destroyed
in the village of Kizner in the internal republic of Udmurtia, 10 similar
munitions were destroyed in the town of Shchuchye in the Kurgan region and
16 faulty aviation bombs (VX) in the village of Maradykovskiy, in the Kirov
region.
According to the Federal Industrial Agency, Russia has 4,351,700 chemical
munitions, including 4,158,200 munitions for artillery, rocket systems and
missile warheads, and 193,500 aviation munitions. They were all manufactured
between 1953 and 1987.
Earlier, Russia’s commission for chemical disarmament reported that the storage
life of chemical weapons at chemical storage facilities in Russia were extended
until 2006. “Recently, the technical condition of 83,100 aviation and 2,001,100
artillery chemical munitions was checked. Documents have been issued which
extend the arsenal’s storage life until 2006 inclusively,” a source in the
commission was quoted by Interfax as saying.
Last week, the Russian government approved a draft program to eliminate the
country’s chemical weapons by 2012. Russia plans to destroy 20 percent of
its chemical weapons in 2007 and another 45 percent in 2009. The disarmament
will be completed in 2012.
Russia has so far built one chemical dismantling plant in the Saratov region
in Central Russia. Six other plants will be commissioned in 2005-2009. Russia
pledged to eliminate its large stockpile of chemical weapons within 10 years
in 1997 with the signing of the Chemical Weapons Convention, but was later
allowed to extend the deadline by five years due to funding difficulties.