Russia: Chemical Export Controls Strengthened

Russia imposed new limits on exports of dangerous chemicals yesterday in an attempt to keep them out of the hands of terrorists.  The new rules will cover substances, equipment and technology that could be used in manufacturing chemical weapons and will also block exports to some countries altogether. The decision was made after U.S. intelligence sources expressed fears of terrorists working with the Russian mafia to procure weapons of mass destruction (Express, Sept. 29).

Russia Unable To Destroy Chemical Weapons

Russia does not have the technology or adequate funding needed to destroy its chemical weapons, said Lev Fedorov, a former chemical weapons scientist, last week.  “Russia so far has no normal technologies for chemical weapons destruction,” Federov said (see GSN, Sept. 20).  The new chemical weapons program (see GSN, Sept. 26), adopted by Russia in July, includes plans to destroy chemical weapons and the plants that build them, according to Fedorov, but “no solution is offered to the third problem addressed by the [Chemical Weapons Convention], the problems of old weapons buried in Russia.” Over 200,000 tons of World War II-era chemical weapons are buried in unknown locations throughout Russia, said Fedorov (Interfax, Sept. 27, in FBIS-SOV, Sept. 27).

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