RIA Novosti RUSSIAN NEWS & INFORMATION AGENCY 21 July 2005 |
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Moscow, July 21 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian government has approved in principle a draft program for the disposal of the country's chemical weapons stockpiles. The program, to be finalized by August 15 this year and implemented before the end of 2012, includes the allocation of some 171 billion rubles (around $6 billion), Vice Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov said at a Cabinet session Thursday.
Industries and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko told the Cabinet in his keynote speech that 160 billion rubles of the designated sum would be appropriated from the federal treasury, whereas the remainder was expected to come from foreign assistance.
The program outlines the destruction of 20% of Russia's 40,000-metric-ton stockpiles by the year 2007, another 45% by 2009, and the remainder by 2012, Khristenko said. Twenty-four disposal facilities and one production facility are to be dismantled concurrently, he added. The minister also announced that 10% of the money to be allocated within the program would be channeled into infrastructure development projects in the rural and urban areas across Russia where the disposal sites are situated.
Speaking of Russia's ratification of the Chemical Weapons Convention, Khristenko said it was "quite a challenge" because at the point of ratifying it, "we had no [adequate] production capacities and were suffering from money shortages.... Foreign countries failed to fully deliver on their promises. Some of them pledged money but then took a wait-and-see approach while others decided to make their aid conditional." He also said this was what led Russia to extend the deadline for the destruction of its chemical weapons stockpiles to 2012.
"Instead of [the pledged] 35 million rubles ($1.2 billion), a mere 21 billion rubles ($700 million) has come in since the program was launched. Assistance has been provided only with regard to three of the seven disposal facilities. On top of it all, one of the chemical disarmament co-sponsors, the United States, released no funds whatsoever in the period between 1999 and 2002," the minister explained.
Khristenko also spoke about safer storage and disposal in the face of new global threats, noting that measures to enhance the safety of relevant facilities require additional funding.