MOSCOW. July 23 (Interfax-AVN) - The chemical disarmament program in Russia is delayed by insufficient funding, which amount to about 50% of the money, envisioned by the program, Sergey Kirienko, Presidential Envoy in the Volga Federal District, told reporters before the meeting of the Chemical Disarmament State Commission, being held in Moscow on Friday.
"Financing is the most important problem," Kirienko said. He noted that the funding issue was considered by the Security Council late last year. "Back then I reported that we were slightly lagging behind the schedule, although we had a chance to catch up with the timeframe," Kirienko said.
He stressed that only the Gorny plant in the Saratov region was busy destroying chemical weapons. It has completed disposing of the mustard gas, and has disposed of over 80 tons of lewisite. "The Kombarka plant, situated in Udmurtia, is the next plant to be constructed. It is to be finished by December 2005. At the present time we comply with the timeframe, but everything is done given only half the funds, envisioned by the program," Kirienko said.
Responding to the question about the assistance, rendered to Russia by chemical disarmament sponsoring states, Kirienko emphasized that Germany had started delivering equipment to the Kombarku plant. "To its credit, Germany has offered specific cooperation, unlike the U.S., which offers endless political discussions, but only a great number of promises in the end," Kirienko said.
He noted that the analysis of expenditures of American money had shown that Russia received only 30% of the funds allocated, while 70% were spent by American organizations, tasked with monitoring and inspecting the assistance provided.
Kirienko noted that a new edition of the program was adopted in 2002, with the new program envisioning annual funding. However, since foreign partners do not make good on their promises, Russia will have to earmark more funds from the Russian budget. "There is no other option," Kirienko said.
He said that the meeting of the state commission, being held today, will also discuss amendments to the new addition of the Russian chemical disarmament federal program. The necessity of developing such a program has first and foremost been caused by the fact, that foreign counterparts do not comply with their commitments on rendering financial assistance to Russia, he said.