OPCW Director-General Attends Opening Ceremony of the Shchuchye Chemical Weapons Destruction Facility in the Russian Federation

OPCW inspectors will maintain a 24-hour presence at the facility to ensure that all chemical weapons at the site are irreversibly destroyed

Russia's Shchuchye chemical weapons destruction facility, shown in a drawing (Cooperative Threat Reduction program image)

On 29 May 2009, the Director-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Ambassador Rogelio Pfirter attended the opening ceremony of the Shchuchye Chemical Weapons Destruction Facility situated in Kurgan Oblast, the Russian Federation.

In connection with the commissioning of this new facility, the Russian Federation was represented by the Minister of Industry and Trade, H. E. Mr V. Khristenko; the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation to the Volga Federal District and Chairman of the State Commission on Chemical Disarmament, H.E. Mr G.A. Rapota; and the Deputy Foreign Minister, H.E Mr S. Ryabkov.

The Russian authorities were also represented by the Director of the National Authority for the Chemical Weapons Convention Department for Fulfilment of Convention-related Obligations, Ministry of Industry and Trade, Mr V. Kholstov; and the Head of the Federal Department for Safe Storage and Destruction of Chemical Weapons, General V. Kapashin.

The Honorable United States Senator Mr Richard G. Lugar also attended the ceremony, as well as the Ambassador of the United States to the Russian Federation and representatives of Canada, France, Finland, the United Kingdom and other donor countries.

The Minister of Industry and Trade and other Russian authorities underlined that the opening of the Shchuchye Facility constituted a further step, and a clear reaffirmation, towards the full and timely fulfillment by the Russian Federation of its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Senator Lugar, who from a very early stage promoted United States’ support to the construction of the Shchuchye Facility, highlighted the value of the U.S.-Russian cooperation in the field of disarmament and stressed the symbolic value of the new Shchuchye Facility in that context.

Director-General Pfirter on behalf of the OPCW congratulated the Russian authorities and the Russian Federation as a whole on the commencement of operations at this new Facility. This achievement constituted an important contribution to international peace and security, and demonstrated the Russian Federation’s continued and firm commitment to meet its solemn obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention to complete destruction of its stockpile within the established deadline. Director-General Pfirter also commended the generosity of the countries which are supporting the Russian Federation and noted that the coming online of the facility at Shchuchye was a sterling example of the crucial cooperation and assistance that the States Parties can offer each other in pursuing the goals enshrined in the Convention.

The Shchuchye facility began on 5 March 2009 the destruction of rocket warheads filled with sarin (GB). The weapons to be destroyed at Shchuchye contain in total about 5,460 metric tonnes of nerve agent including sarin and VX; this represents about 14% of the chemical weapons that Russia is obliged to destroy. During the destruction process, OPCW inspectors will maintain a 24-hour presence at the facility to ensure that all chemical weapons at the site are irreversibly destroyed.

As at 30 April 2009, the Russian Federation had destroyed 12,169 metric tonnes of its Category 1 chemical weapons, or 30.35%, of the aggregate amount declared. To fulfil its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention the Russian Federation will destroy 45% by 31 December 2010 and 100% by 29 April 2012.

OPCW News 24/2009, distributed 29 May 2009

Categories: Disarmament, Eastern Europe