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Russia: U.S. Will Jointly Audit Stockpile Programs New plans announced yesterday would increase cooperation between Russia and the United States on efforts to destroy Russia’s stockpile of chemical weapons. The chairman of Russia’s primary auditing agency, Sergei Stepashin, and David Walker, head of the U.S. General Accounting Office, agreed that the two countries would jointly audit the management program for the Russian stockpile, Stepashin said. Auditors would examine how U.S. funds are used in the program and the efficiency of destruction equipment, the Washington Times reported. “As Russia has about half of the world’s chemical weapons stocks, this is an issue that’s important not just for us but for world security,” said Stepashin, a former Russian prime minister. The Russian management program is scheduled to receive $200 million from the United States in 2002 but could need up to $15 billion before the last of the weapons are destroyed in 2012, the Times reported (see GSN, Dec. 7). The U.S. Congress in August lifted a two-year block against funding for the program, and Russia is hoping the United States will grant $2 billion to help move the program forward, Stepashin said (see GSN, Nov. 26). U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney has agreed to form a joint working group to consider the program’s financing over the next decade, Stepashin said. Stepashin has also proposed that Russia could pay for most of the program if a corresponding amount of its $67 billion Soviet-era debt could be forgiven (David Sands, Washington Times, Dec. 20).
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