Russia's chemical disarming lags

POCHEP, Russia - Russia will miss a 2012 deadline for destroying all of its chemical weapons, officials said Friday as they inaugurated a major new plant to dispose of them.

The facility at Pochep, tucked between the Ukrainian and Belarussian borders 250 miles southwest of Moscow, is the latest of six plants built in Russia in recent years to dismantle the nation's Cold War-era chemical-weapons arsenals - the world's largest. Pochep will process nearly 19 percent of Russia's stockpile, or 7,500 tons of nerve agent used in aircraft-delivered munitions.

The plant, hidden in a dense birch forest, is key to Russia's commitment to destroy all of its chemical weapons by April 2012 as the nation deals with its vast arsenal of weapons of mass destruction.

As a signatory of the international Chemical Weapons Convention, the country has destroyed about half of its chemical weapons, Russian officials say.

Viktor Kholstov, the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade's official in charge of chemical disarmament, said at the plant opening Friday that Russia was honoring its commitment on disarmament but would need two or three more years beyond the previously announced deadline.

The delay was caused by a shortage of funds in the last two years, he said. Government funding has been scarce, while international donors have provided only 60 percent of the expected funding.

The Foreign Ministry issued a similar warning in August, saying that, because of the financial crisis, Russia had run into "financial and technical difficulties" that would stretch the time required by up to three years.

The United States has acknowledged it will miss the deadline, too. Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller said at the United Nations last month that the United States had destroyed 78 percent of the chemical-weapons stockpiles and was on pace to destroy 90 percent of its arsenal by April 2012.

Col.-Gen. Valery Kapashin, a military official in charge of storage and elimination of Russia's chemical stockpiles, said that Pochep was expected to destroy its stock of chemical weapons by the end of 2014.

The weapons processed at Pochep are loaded with nerve gas such as VX, sarin, and soman, which can potentially become a lethal weapon if they fall into the hands of terrorists. The first five tons of VX were destroyed at Pochep on Friday.

Munitions are transported from a nearby arsenal to the plant, where they are drilled, then a fuel neutralizing their deadly agent is added. The munitions will spend three months in underground storage before they are burned in special stoves at the plant.