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Russia: OPCW Extends Destruction Deadlines The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which oversees the Chemical Weapons Convention, has granted Russia extensions for two of its chemical weapons destruction deadlines, the organization said today (see GSN, Oct. 9). During a conference held last week at The Hague, the OPCW agreed in principle to grant Russia extensions for two deadlines — the destruction of 1 percent and of 20 percent of its chemical weapons arsenal, the OPCW said in a press statement. The conference authorized the OPCW Executive Council to set a new date for the first deadline by the end of this year and to recommend a date for the second deadline by October 2003. The conference also agreed to grant a deadline extension to another, unspecified OPCW member for the destruction of 20 percent of its chemical weapons (see related GSN story, today). The OPCW established detailed reporting requirements for Russia and called on other countries to assist in destroying Russia’s chemical weapons. It agreed to a Russian request to convert, rather than destroy, nine former chemical weapons production sites (Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons release, Oct. 15). Sergei Kiriyenko, chairman of the Russian state commission on chemical disarmament, praised the OPCW’s decision to grant the conversion request. “Conversion is very important to us: It means about 2,000 jobs,” Kiriyenko said in an interview with the Russian newspaper Kommersant. “People who are experts in the chemical weapons sphere will not be left unemployed. This is relevant to the question of control of technology drain” (Kommersant/BBC Monitoring, Oct. 14). For further information, see:
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