MOSCOW. April 6 (Interfax-AVN) - The U.S. will donate Russia USD380m to 420m for WMD scrapping in 2005, the Washington ProFile news agency said on Tuesday.
"All in all, according to the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, in 2005 Russia will have USD380m to 420m U.S. money," the agency reported.
In particular, the agency said, in 2005 Russia will receive USD158.4m for chemical weapons destruction; USD48.7m will be allocated for chemical weapons storage sites security, USD26.3m for transportation security, and USD43m will go to the Russian Atomic Energy Ministry for its security programs.
On the whole, according to the agency, the U.S. plans to spend over USD1.8bn for various WMD scrapping efforts in 2005, which will be about the same as in 2004. The programs are implemented through the U.S. Department of Defense, Department of Energy, and State Department.
Alexander Kharichev, secretary of the State Chemical Disarmament Commission, said earlier that Western countries have allocated several-fold less money for the Russian chemical weapons disposal program than declared.
"The funds declared were to have totaled about USD1.3bn, but in fact Russia has received less then USD200m," Kharichev said.
According to Kharichev, the U.S. promised to allocate USD230m in 2003. At the present time only USD20m have been officially transferred. "This is the real sum of money, received by Russian contractors," Kharichev said.
He said that the U.S. had promised to allocate USD200m in 2004. "We are quite skeptical about this promise," he said.
At the same time, according to him, the international assistance to Russia is increasing due to steps, being taken by the State Chemical Disarmament Commission. For instance, in 2002 it totaled USD14m, in 2003 - USD60m. "This year we expect to receive USD300m," Kharichev said. At the same time he said that it was unlikely that Russia would receive this exact sum.