Chemical Weapon Destruction in Russia: Political, Legal and Technical Aspects

On 29 April 1997 the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) entered into force. Only the Russian Federation and the USA have acknowledged possessing chemical weapon (CW) stockpiles (approximately 30 000 and 40 000 agent tonnes, respectively). Russia signed the CWC on 13 January 1993, when it entered into force, but did not ratify it until 5 November 1997. This volume, supported by the Volkswagen Foundation and produced in cooperation with the Bonn International Center for Conversion (BICC), reviews Russian CW destruction efforts, factors which have hindered them and reasons why Russian CWC ratification was postponed. Information is provided on CWC destruction requirements; CW destruction; past destruction efforts; the Russian destruction legislation, technologies and programme; foreign assistance; and choice of destruction technologies. The contributors have been directly involved with these issues.

 

Contents

1. The problems of Russian chemical weapon destruction (Natalya Kalinina)

2. Russia on the path towards chemical demilitarization (Alexander Chimiskyan)

3. Russia's legal basis for chemical demilitarization (Igor Khripunov)

4. Chemical weapon destruction requirements of the CWC (John Hart)

5. Destruction or conversion of Russian chemical weapon production facilities (John A. Gilbert, Harvey W. Hubbard, Robert F. Pruszkowski and Mark Felipe)

6. Chemical weapon destruction technologies for the Russian CW stockpile (Thomas Stock)

7. Risks posed by the chemical weapon stockpile in the Udmurt Republic (Vladimir Kolodkin)

8. The Russian-US joint evaluation of the Russian two-stage process for the destruction of nerve agents (Irina P. Beletskaya)

9. The role of GosNIIOKhT in the Russian chemical weapon destruction programme (Vladislav Sheluchenko and Anton Utkin)

10. US assistance to Russia's chemical weapon destruction programme (Amy E. Smithson)

11. Chemical weapon destruction in Russia: prospects for increasing assistance to local communities (Cynthia D. Miller)

Annexe A. CWC definitions and terms (John Hart)

About the editors

John Hart (USA) was a Research Assistant on the SIPRI Chemical and Biological Warfare Project in 1996-97. He is co-author of the SIPRI fact-sheet The Chemical Weapons Convention and of chapters in the SIPRI Yearbooks 1997 and 1998. An abridged version of this volume, Unichtozheniye Khimicheskogo Oruzhiya v Rossii: Politicheskiye, Pravovye i Tekhnicheskiye Aspekty, was published in Russian by the Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) in 1997.

Cynthia D. Miller (USA) is currently a policy analyst at ANSER, Inc. in Arlington, Virginia, and provides analytical support to the Office of the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense (Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Matters) for the US Chemical Demilitarization Program. She was a Research Analyst in 1996-97 for chemical weapon issues at the Bonn International Center for Conversion (BICC) and is the author of a chapter assessing Chemical Weapons Convention requirements and challenges for international chemical weapon disposal in the BICC volume Conversion Survey 1997: Global Disarmament and Disposal of Surplus Weapons.

About the series editor

Dr Jean Pascal Zanders assumed responsibility for the SIPRI Chemical and Biological Warfare Project in 1996 and is the Series Editor. He was previously Research Associate at the Centre for Peace and Security Studies at the Free University of Brussels. He is the author of a chapter in the 1997 SIPRI volume The Challenge of Old Chemical Munitions and Toxic Armament Wastes, co-author of the SIPRI fact sheets The Chemical Weapons Convention (1997) and Iraq: The UNSCOM Experience (1998), and co-author of chapters in the SIPRI Yearbooks 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001. He has also written on regime formation and implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and on regional security in the Middle East with respect to chemical and biological weapons.

SIPRI Chemical & Biological Warfare Studies is a series of studies intended primarily for specialists in the field of CBW arms control and for people engaged in other areas of international relations or security affairs whose work could benefit from a deeper understanding of particular CBW matters.

Ordering details

This book can be ordered from all good bookshops and online booksellers or directly from OUP

OUP in the UK:
http://www.oup.com/uk/catalogue/?ci=9780198295693 (paperback)

OUP in the USA:
http://www.us.oup.com/us/catalog/general/?view=usa&ci=9780198295693 (paperback)