MOSCOW, January 28th, 2004 (RIA Novosti correspondent) - The Russian Federation and Switzerland have signed an agreement on co-operation in eliminating chemical weapons in Russia.
From the Russian side, Director General of the Russian Ammunition Agency Viktor Kholstov signed the agreement. The Swiss side was represented by Swiss Charge D'affaires Ann Boti.
"The first stage of our co-operation within this agreement will be the formation of sanitary and hygienic control system at Schuchye chemical weapons elimination facility," said Viktor Kholstov.
The abovementioned facility in the Schuchye settlement (the Kurgan region, Transuralia), is due to open in 2006. According to Kholstov, Switzerland is going to allocate a total of 15 million Swiss franks (or some $12 million) within five years for chemical weapons elimination.
