MOSCOW. Sept 10 (Interfax-AVN) - Britain is completely fulfilling its obligations on financing the construction of infrastructure for the special installation on combat poisonous substances scrapping in the town of Shchuchye in the Kurgan region, Oleg Goroshko, chief of the department on science, equipment and ecology in the British Embassy in Moscow, said on Tuesday.
"The British financial aid under the auspices of the Russian chemical weapons scrapping program and envisaged for the installation construction in Shchuchye is progressing in accordance with a schedule. Out of some GBP12m (USD18m) allocated by Britain several millions of pounds are already spent on the construction of the water supply system to the installation. The construction of the water pipeline and other water supplying systems is planned to be completed in October 2002," Goroshko told Interfax-Military News Agency.
The general contractor on the installation construction is the U.S. Parsons company while the Russian Stroiprogress company is the subcontractor in the project. Considering the total British input in the WMD weapons scrapping program in Russia Goroshko reminded that already in July 2002 the British party announced the allocation of GBP12m for those purposes in next three years.
"The first project financed by Britain was the establishment of the water supply system in the town. The second project that is to be implemented is the construction of the electric power supply system in 2003," Goroshko went on.
"It is possible that we will be involved in the construction of other installations in Shchuchye. We produce all installations in accordance with proposals of the main Russian representative in the project which is the Ammunition Agency," Goroshko noted.
According to him, "in spite of delays with financing from the United States that is the main donor of the project the British party continues to fully implement its obligations. London provides money that is why we have to use it for the purpose."
At present the substances are being located at seven installations. The Gorny village in the Saratov region and town of Kambarka in the Udmurtian autonomous republic have blister gasses such as yperite and lewisite, the Leonidovka village in the Penza region, Maradykovsky village in the Kirov region, Kizner in the Udmurtian republic, towns of Shchuchye in the Kurgan region and Pochep in the Brynsk region contain stun gasses such as zarin, zoman and VX ones.