News Review Special Edition

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International Developments, April 1 - May 10, 2003

Russia Makes Belated Progress in Mammoth CW Destruction Task

On April 26, in the words of an ebullient statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry, a "significant event occurred...in the area of chemical disarmament: at the facility specifically created for this purpose in Gorny, Saratov region, and launched four months ago, the liquidation of a total amount of 400 tons of a chemical weapon - the poisonous mustard gas - was carried out." While the amount liquidated amounts to only 1 percent of the country's mammoth 40,000-ton chemical weapons (CW) stockpile, the figure carries considerable diplomatic significance, marking the belated fulfilment of the first phase of Russia's stockpile-destruction requirements under the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). Under the standard terms of the treaty, Russia would be expected to fully eliminate its stockpile by April 29, 2007, ten years after the Convention's entry-into-force; destruction of the first 1 percent of the stockpile would have been due by April 29, 1998. Provision is made in the accord, however, to extend this deadline by five years. Such a revision - requested by Russia in the face of multiple financial, organisational and logistical difficulties - would specify the following stages: 1 percent destruction, April 29, 2003; 20 percent destruction, April 29, 2007; 45 percent destruction, April 29, 2009; full destruction, April 29, 2012. For a discussion of the complexities of the deadline-extension issue, see Alexander Kelle's report on the First CWC Review Conference (April 28-May 9) in this edition of Disarmament Diplomacy.

The destruction of the final portion of the 400 tons of mustard gas at Gorny was observed in a ceremony attended by senior Russian and foreign officials, including Sergei Kiriyenko, Chair of the State Commission on Chemical Disarmament, and inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the CWC's implementing authority. Kiriyenko told reporters: "With the amount destroyed thus far, one could have annihilated a medium-sized European city... [This landmark] shows that our country is firmly fulfilling its obligations, and testifies to the fact that Russian scientists can create technology not just on the world standard, but surpassing it."

The Foreign Ministry statement - confidently predicting that the "Federal Goal-Oriented Program for Chemical Disarmament in the Russian Federation will continue to be consistently implemented" - provided the following details of the current and planned destruction programme: "The facility in the steppe township of Gorny is a unique pilot plant which functions practically in an automatic mode and uses the advanced technologies devised by Russian scientists. The very strict norms of ecological monitoring, and the reliability and the doubling character of the equipment ensure the safety of personnel, of the population and of the environment. The immediate plans are to establish in Gorny a second line for the destruction of the stockpiles of a poisonous substance - lewisite. Taking into account the experience of the work in Gorny it is planned to build two more large chemical disarmament facilities in Kambarka (Udmurtia) and Shchuchye (Kurgan Region). Considerable technical and financial assistance in the construction of the facility had been rendered by Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and the European Union. Gorny has become a veritable symbol of the European partnership in the liquidation of a whole type of weapons of mass destruction."

Reports: 400 tons of mustard gas destroyed, says Russia, Dawn (Pakistan), April 26; On Russia's implementation of first stage of chemical disarmament, Russian Foreign Ministry Statement, Document 1019-27-04-2003, April 27; Moscow destroys 400 tons of mustard gas, Global Security Newswire, April 28; 400 tons of chemicals destroyed, Moscow Times, April 28.

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