Russia Boosts Budget for Chemical Weapons Disposal

Russia would increase funding for chemical weapons disposal to almost $3 billion over three years in its newest draft budget, Interfax reported yesterday (see GSN, June 15).

“The funds allocated will allow five chemical weapons disposal facilities to become operational,” a Russian official told Interfax.

The budget earmarks $1.1 billion for disposal programs in 2008, $1.1 billion for 2009 and $763 million for 2010, according to the State Duma Defense Committee (Interfax/BBC Monitoring, July 4).

The money and new disposal facilities should help Russia comply with its Chemical Weapons Convention obligations, which require the country to destroy its chemical weapons stockpile by 2012 (see GSN, April 27).

The new three-year budget would allocate almost $1 billion more for chemical disposal programs than the last spending plan, according to a Hudson Institute security expert Richard Weitz (Richard Weitz, Hudson Institute/WMD Insights, June 2007).

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