Chemical security

Russia to complete destruction of its chemical weapons stocks by 2020 — OPCW

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has no doubts that Russia will complete the destruction of its chemical weapons stocks by 2020, OPCW Director-General Ahmet Uzumcu told TASS on Wednesday.

He said that initially all countries that possessed chemical weapons were supposed to dispose of their stocks of toxic agents by April 29, 2012. But that did not happen due to technical and financial problems.After consultations with the OPCW member states, the OPCW decided to prolong the deadline until 2020. Russia pledged to dispose of all chemical warfare agents by 2020.

This year, Russia has finished work at four chemical weapons disposal plants: Leonidovka (the Penza region); Pochep (the Bryansk region); Maradykovsky (the Kirov region) and Shchuchye (the Kurgan region). Russia has shut down the first two plants.