MOSCOW. July 29 (Interfax-AVN) - RUB30m (USD991,510) is allocated for information support of the Russian chemical weapons destruction program in 2003, a source in the administration of the State Chemical Disarmament Commission told Interfax-Military News Agency on Tuesday.
"RUB30m is to be provided in 2003 for maintaining permanent information support the federal purpose-oriented program of Russia chemical weapons destruction. Information support is an integral part of the program's management," the source said.
The funds will be primarily directed for the creation and functioning of regional information centers on chemical weapons destruction in Izhevsk, Kurgan, Penza, Kirov, and Bryansk, as well as for maintaining activity of the inter-regional information center in Saratov, he said.
In addition, the funds will be used to conduct sociological research in the regions where chemical weapons are being destroyed and to inform the population on various aspects on chemical disarmament.
"Informing citizens and public unions on maintenance of the population's security and environment protection in working with war gases at storage and destruction sites will remain the main sphere of work in 2004," the source said.
The work aims at creating a positive attitude towards chemical disarmament among the population, he noted.
Russia stockpiles 40,000t of war gases. The federal purpose- oriented program of chemical weapons destruction approved by the government in July 2001 provides for destroying the entire stockpiles before 2012.
Russia's first chemical weapons destruction facility in Gorny was put into operation on December 19, 2002. The first stage of the program was implemented by April 29, 2003 through the destruction of one percent of war gases in Gorny. The second section of the Gorny facility is to be commissioned in the third quarter of 2003. The facility is expected to destroy 1,142 tonnes of lewisite, mustard gas and their combinations by 2005. The Gorny plant's stockpiles account for 2.9 percent of Russia's total chemical weapons.
The facility serves as a testing ground for technologies that will later be applied at the country's second facility in Kambarka in the Republic of Udmurtia, which is the largest storage site for lewisite. It is to be put in operation in 2005. Russia plans to destroy the entire stocks of yperite and lewisite by 2007 and to implement the second stage of the program that provides for getting rid of 20 percent of Russian chemical weapons by April 29, 2007.
Russia is getting rid of its chemical weapons under the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of All Types of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction. The document was ratified by Russia in 1997. Under the convention, the stockpiles of Russia's Category One war gases in the amount of 40,000 tonnes must be completely disposed of.
Russia destroyed powder charges (chemical weapons of Category Three) ahead of schedule in November 2001 and phosgene charges (chemical weapons of Category Two) in March 2002.