U.S. Congress overturns Pentagon's foot-drag on Russian chemical weapons
RIA Novosti
May 10, 2007
(For personal use only)

The U.S. 2008 defense budget approved by the House Armed Service Committee Thursday includes $42.7 million to help Russia complete a chemical weapons destruction site, despite the Administration's failure to ask for the money.

In a memo attached to the budget, the U.S. lawmakers criticized the Pentagon for what is seen on the Capitol Hill as weakness of commitment to joint threat reduction and called U.S. defense officials to assist Russia in every way in completing the site in Shchuchye in the Urals and putting it in operation.

Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov had earlier said Russia would honor all its commitments on the destruction of chemical weapons under the Chemical Weapons Convention signed by 180 states in 1993.

Russia has been destroying its chemical stockpiles with aid from other countries such as the United States, Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Canada.

The village of Shchuchye sits on a large stockpile of aging chemical munitions whose disposal depends on funding under the Cooperative Threat Reduction Act adopted by U.S. Congress in 2004. The construction has so far been stalled by disagreements between Russian and U.S. officials over who pays for what.