Russia's Chemical Weapon Destruction Obligations

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Destruction obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC)

The Chemical Weapons Convention obliges each State Party to destroy all chemical weapons which it owns or possesses, or that are located in any place under its jurisdiction or control. Articles III and IV and Part IV(A) of the Verification Annex to the CWC stipulate that chemical weapons must be destroyed in an essentially irreversible way to a form unsuitable for production of chemical weapons (paragraph 12 of PartIV(A) of the Verification Annex).

Each State Party engaged in chemical weapon destruction must assign the highest priority to ensuring the safety of people and to protecting the environment. A State Party may not destroy chemical weapons through dumping in any body of water, land burial or open-pit burning (paragraph 13 of Part IV(A) of the Verification Annex) and CW must be transported, sampled, stored and destroyed in accordance with national standards for safety and emissions.

The Convention categorizes chemicals into three 'schedules' (Schedule 1, 2 and 3) to reflect the relative risk which each chemical poses to the object and purpose of the CWC. Each Schedule is in turn is divided into two sections: A and B. Section A consists of toxic chemicals and Section B consists of their precursors.

Schedule 1 chemicals are believed to pose a high risk to the object and purpose of the CWC. Lewisite, both sulphur and nitrogen mustard and all of the nerve agents are included in this schedule. Two toxins, ricin and saxitoxin, are also included. Chemical components to binary weapons and nerve agent precursors are in Section B. The toxic chemicals listed in Part A of Schedule 3 have many industrial applications and are widely produced. However, such chemicals were used as weapons during World War I.

Scheduled chemicals and their parts and components, as well as unfilled munitions, devices and equipment declared by a State Party are sorted into Category 1, Category 2 or Category 3 items. Category 1 contains Schedule 1 chemicals and their parts and components. Category 2 includes non-Schedule 1 chemicals and their parts and components, while Category 3 includes unfilled munitions, devices and equipment specifically designed for use directly in connection with employment of chemical weapons.

A different order of destruction applies to each Category. Roughly speaking, Category 1 items should be destroyed within 10 years after entry into force of the CWC for the State Party concerned, though the Executive Council of the OPCW may grant an extension of up to 5 years. Category 2 and Category 3 items should be destroyed within 5 years of entry into force.

Russian Chemical Weapon Destruction Obligations

The Russian destruction plan of 21 March 1996 (Federal Law no. 305) called for chemical weapons to be destroyed on-site with destruction to begin in 1998. It outlined an order of destruction that matched the timetable for Category 1 chemical weapons under the CWC and also envisaged conversion of some CW agents.

The Russian destruction plan called for the mustard, lewisite and mustard/lewisite mixtures stored in bulk in Gorny and Kambarka to be destroyed first. A Russian Federation decree of December 1994 mandated that chemical weapon destruction facilities (CWDF) be built at these two sites. Weaponized CW agent was stored at five other declared sites at Kizner, Shuchye, Leonidovka, Maradikovsky and Pochep. According to the original timetable, Russia should have destroyed all of its CW stockpile by 2005, but there have been significant delays in the destruction programme.

Overview of Russia's CW Destruction Programme including Foreign Assistance.(PDF format)

Chemical weapon distribution at the Russian storage sites

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