MOSCOW. April 18 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov has signed a government resolution that authorizes the sending of a note to Germany to express the government's consent to the scheme of distribution of gratuitous allocations for chemical weapons destruction in Russia in 2003.
The resolution approves the text of the note and instructs the Foreign Ministry to send the note to the German embassy in Russia, the government information department reported on Friday.
In particular, the note says that the Russian government agrees to the German scheme of distribution of EUR29.7m that the German government allocated gratuitously for 2003 in the framework of global partnership against proliferation of weapons and materials of mass destruction. Global partnership accords were reached at the G-8 meeting in Canada's Kananaskis. Gratuitous provision of funds to Russia is also authorized by the agreement between the Russian president's committee on conventional problems of chemical and biological weapons and German Federal Foreign Ministry of October 22, 1993.
The funds will be spent on the procurement of cistern dismantling equipment for a chemical weapons destruction facility, creation of a thermal waste deactivation system (estimated cost of EUR7m), and supplies of catalytic reactors for the chemical weapons destruction facility in Kambarka (estimated cost of EUR6m). Moreover, Germany will finance equipment supplies and installation at the chemical weapons destruction facility in the town of Gorny in the Saratov region. The cost of the equipment and work is expected to total EUR6.2m.