MOSCOW. May 31 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian expenditure on chemical disarmament has grown from 500 million rubles ($18.53 million) in 2000 to 18.3 billion rubles ($678.38 million) in 2006, Anatoly Antonov, head of the Russian Foreign Ministry's department for security and disarmament, told Interfax on Wednesday.
"The main emphasis of the Chemical Weapons Convention is the unconditional elimination of all stocks of toxic substances in the world," and such arsenals must be scrapped by April 2012, he said
Speaking of Russia's nonproliferation priorities during its presidency in G8, Antonov said that Russia is working intensively to prevent the spread of other dangerous types of weapons of mass destruction, biological weapons in particular.
"The main emphasis of G8 is on biological security, on discovering and responding to outbursts of infectious diseases that may be caused by instances of biological terrorism," he said.
"Unlike previous years, the Russian presidency will pay special attention to resisting dangerous infections," Antonov said.