Russia Storing Unsafe Chemical Weapons

Russian chemical weapons storage facilities house about 33,000 ammunition rounds that are no longer safe to store, MosNews.com reported yesterday (see GSN, July 26).

“Checks have revealed 11,810 aviation and over 21,000 artillery munitions are beyond their safe storage life,” a source with Russia’s Federal Industrial Agency said, according to Interfax. “The guarantee terms of storage for all the munitions have expired, and the terms of their safe keeping are also expiring.”

The source said weapons identified as dangerous are being destroyed at the storage facilities because of safety concerns. For example, 23 sarin-filled warheads have been destroyed in Kizner, 10 sarin-filled rockets were eliminated in Shchuchye and 16 VX-filled aviation bombs were destroyed in Maradykovskiy (MosNews.com, July 26).

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