New Russian plant to destroy two million chemical weapons

Shchuchye, Siberia: Russian and US officials have formally inaugurated a massive plant in Siberia that will eventually destroy some two million chemical weapons shells. The inauguration has been hailed as a milestone in global security and also in cooperation between Moscow and Washington.

The village-sized plant in Shchuchye, about 1,600km east of Moscow, has largely been funded by the US under the Cooperative Threat Reduction Initiative which was launched a year after the Soviet Union's collapse.

The chemical weapons stored at Shchuchye, include those that are armed with deadly nerve gases such as VX and Sarin. Such weapons, if used in densely populated areas could easily kill tens of thousands of people.