SHCHUCHYE, Kurgan Region, June 8 (AVN) - The local chemical scrapping installation will raise on Friday the flags of all countries which gratuitously help Russia complete the scrapping, the Military News Agency learned.
The ceremony participants arrived in Chelyabinsk and are currently riding to the site on buses. The Russian delegation is led by Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov and also features Sergei Kiriyenko, Russian President Vladimir Putin's envoy to the Volga federal district and chairman of the state commission on chemical disarmament, Pyotr Latyshev, Putin's envoy to the Ural federal district, Zinovi Pak, director general of the Russian Ammunition Agency, Kurgan region Governor Oleg Bogomolov and other officials. Among the sponsor countries are the USA, Canada, European Union, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.
Russia is finally starting full-scale implementation of the chemical weapons scrapping programme in 2001, Klebanov told the Military News Agency. Pak said that the process would be complicated and lengthy, for Russia piled the largest stocks of those weapons in the world, particularly, 40,000t of poisonous substances. They are all located in seven chemical arsenals in six regions of the country.
The Shchuchye arsenal is the biggest for it comprises 13.6 percent of Russia's total stocks. It contains ammo of the tube and missile artillery, missile warheads equipped with nerve agents such as Sarin, Soman and VX as well as with asphyxiants like phosgene.
Nevertheless, Russia is a full member of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of All Types of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction and will scrap everything within the stated term, Pak claimed. For that purpose the federal control system for chemical disarmament processes was restructured, the state commission on chemical disarmament was established, and the Russian Ammunition Agency was made responsible for implementation of the convention.
The Defence Ministry transferred control over all chemical weapons arsenals to the federal department on safe stockpiling and destruction of chemical weapons under the Russian Ammunition Agency. Russian authorities approved important legal acts such as the law "Concerning Social Protection of People Working with the Chemical Weapons." The federal purpose-oriented programme on the scrapping of chemical weapons was reworked taking into account Russia's real capabilities. Budget allocations for the programme implementation were increased at six times in 2001 in comparison with 2000 and they will continue to grow.
The ceremony participants will have the chance to study the beginning of works on the installation which is crucial for the programme's implementation.