MOSCOW, April 5 (AVN) - The State Duma lower house of parliament will consider on Thursday a draft amendment to the federal law "Concerning Chemical Weapons Destruction."
The draft amendment will be introduced to the house by lawmaker Pyotr Rogonov, one of its authors.
The current legislation says chemical weapons should be eliminated only at the sites of their storage, Rogonov told the Military News Agency. There are six storage sites in the country, he said. Russia lacks funds to build processing facilities at all storage sites and there is a need to legalise transportation of chemical weapons to the sites where such facilities will be built, he stressed.
The amendment consists of one phrase only, "as a rule". If it is approved, Article Two of the law will read as follows, "as a rule, chemical weapons are destroyed at their storage sites."
Opponents of the amendment claim that chemical weapons transportation will be a great problem for Russia given imperfection of transportation safety rules and possibility of sabotage acts.
The reviews received from Russian regions are divided roughly equally. The regions where storage sites are located mostly supported the amendment, while the regions whose territory will be used for transportation mostly opposed it. The Russian government backed the draft, Rogonov said.