Russia to spend $174 million to destroy chemical weapons

MOSCOW -- Russia has budgeted $174 million for destroying chemical weapons in 2003, far less than what is needed to help Moscow meet its goals, the head of the chemical disarmament program said Wednesday.

Zinovy Pak, the head of the Russian Munitions Agency, said the 2003 allocation was about the same as that for 2002.

"We are certainly not satisfied with the sum, for we have to start construction of the main scrapping facilities for poisonous gases in Shchuchye ... and Kambarka," Pak said, according to the Interfax-Military News Agency.

Russia has been trying to convince other nations of the seriousness of its efforts to destroy its chemical weapons arsenal, which at nearly 44,000 tons is the world's largest.

The process, launched after Russia ratified the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, has been beset by numerous delays blamed on a lack of funding. But it got a new impetus last week, when Russia unveiled its first chemical weapons destruction facility in the Volga River town of Gorny.

U.S. suspended some aid

Russia's plans have three destruction facilities, at Gorny, Shchuchye in the Ural Mountains and Kambarka.

Russian officials complain that many countries, including the United States, have not made good on promises of aid to help Moscow destroy its stockpiles. The U.S. Congress suspended some aid to Russia for chemical weapons destruction, including construction of the Shchuchye plant, in part over concerns about Moscow's own financing of the undertaking.

Russia, which had earlier pledged to destroy its chemical weapons stockpile by 2007, has requested a five-year extension. Russian officials now say they plan to destroy 1 percent of their chemical weapons arsenal by next year, 20 percent by 2007, 45 percent by 2009 and the remainder by 2012.

Meanwhile, Russia's Nuclear Power Ministry said the country had removed the nuclear fuel from 14 decommissioned nuclear submarines in 2002 and disposed of 17 submarines from which the fuel had already been removed.

A total of about 100 submarines have been scrapped in previous years, and about the same number of subs remain to be dealt with, Nuclear Power Minister Alexander Rumyantsev said.

Russia has been making slow progress dismantling its rusting fleet of nuclear submarines, which have languished in ports and pose an increasing environmental hazard.