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Russia to Increase Chemical Weapons Disposal Funding
Russia said yesterday that it plans next year to increase the amount it spends on chemical weapons destruction, but complained of inadequate international aid for the effort, according to Agence France-Presse (see GSN, Nov. 10). Russia plans to allocate almost $390 million next year for chemical weapons destruction, up from the $186 million allocated in 2004, said Alexander Kharichev, secretary of the Russia chemical weapons disarmament commission. Kharichev said, though, that chemical weapons disposal is “an international problem” and must be solved “with the international community on an equal basis.” Between 1992 and 2003, Russia only received $217 million in international aid for chemical weapons disposal efforts, said Viktor Kholstov, deputy head of the Russian Federal Industry Agency. “Russia only gets 30 percent of the sums announced by the Americans in their aid programs,” he said. The rest of the money goes toward “organizational costs” at U.S. entities involved in the program, he said (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Nov. 10). U.S.-Russian disputes over contracts have also hampered efforts to eliminate Russia’s 40,000-ton chemical weapons stockpile, experts said yesterday in Moscow. There have been “some problems” between U.S. and Russian officials over the past year, said Patrick Wakefield, deputy assistant to the U.S. defense secretary and responsible for chemical disarmament. Wakefield did not elaborate, according to the Associated Press. “The problems have increased costs and delayed schedules,” he said. There have been several incidents in the last year of “Russians coming in at the 11th hour and demanding that a different contractor get a major contract,” said Paul Walker of Global Green USA. “They’ve held up construction for months.” The U.S. Cooperative Threat Reduction Program froze contracting for a chemical weapons disposal site in the Ural Mountains for several months during one such dispute, Walker said (Judith Ingram, Associated Press/South Bend Tribune, Nov. 10).
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