Ridding Russia of its Chemical Weaponry Requires U.S.

By Mikhail S. Gorbachev - Los Angeles Times, October 19, 2000

Half a century of East-West animosity has left us with many daunting challenges: downsizing standing armies, closing military bases, cleaning up toxic and radioactive waste sites and rebuilding international bridges of trust between the United States, Russia and other nations long divided by the Cold War. Most daunting of all these Cold War legacies, however, is ridding the world of the enormous, dangerous and costly stockpiles of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

Just three years ago, both the U.S. Senate and the Russian Duma ratified the international Chemical Weapons Convention. Today, 173 countries have signed this historic agreement, banning its signatories from researching, developing, producing, stockpiling or using these horrific weapons. It also obliges all nations, including the two major chemical weapons possessors, Russia and the U.S., to abolish their arsenals over the next decade. Chemical weapons were last widely used in World War I, yet Russia and the U.S. continue to have large stockpiles. Most recently, chemical weapons were used in the Iran-Iraq border wars and by Japanese terrorists in the Tokyo subway. With the exception of much smaller arsenals on the Korean Peninsula and in India, both of which are being destroyed, Russia and the U.S. are the only major chemical weapons superpowers remaining. The United States, to its credit, has made considerable progress toward destroying its 31,000-ton arsenal at nine major stockpile sites (Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Oregon, Utah and the Johnston Atoll in the Pacific).

One of the major challenges for both countries is the cost of destruction. The total U.S. cost will approach $20 billion, far surpassing the initial cost of developing chemical weapons arsenals. Russia estimates about half that cost, $10 billion; although Russia's arsenal is one-third larger than the American, its weapons are less complicated and less loaded with explosives and propellants, making disassembly and destruction a more straightforward process.

Nevertheless, Russia's economic situation today cannot bear such a large burden. Russia therefore very much needs Western support. Fortunately, the U.S. Cooperative Threat Reduction program, initiated eight years ago by Sens. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) and Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), has committed some $150 million to date to support construction of a facility in the steppes of Siberia to destroy 5,400 tons of Russian VX and other nerve agents.

But some members of the U.S. House of Representatives have for the past two years sought to close this program down, arguing that it would achieve less national security benefit for the United States than originally anticipated. While a compromise was reached that uses limited leftover money for the coming fiscal year, future U.S. funding is in jeopardy.

The Russian Duma also has been reluctant to fully fund this program. I have written to President Vladimir V. Putin as well as to several dozen other world leaders about this, resulting in many responses of support, including from British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Putin has assured me that Russia will increase its budgetary allocations to chemical weapons destruction this year.

I applaud Defense Secretary William S. Cohen and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Henry H. Shelton, who criticized the shortsightedness of the U.S. Congress and warned that these are highly desirable weapons for terrorists and rogue states and represent a serious proliferation threat. While I am sympathetic to congressional calls for increased ""burden-sharing'' in

helping Russia fulfill its obligations to abolish chemical weapons, I believe that the recent House actions are potentially harmful to U.S. national security interests. Russian chemical weapons, many small enough to fit into a backpack yet powerful enough to kill thousands, are very susceptible to theft and diversion.

It is essential that Russian chemical weapons destruction should remain a vital part of the Cooperative Threat Reduction program. At least a dozen other countries and the European Union have committed some $100 million to date to the Russian program. These commitments would be threatened if the U.S., the mainstay of the international effort, withdrew its support. And the Chemical Weapons Convention itself would be threatened should Russia withdraw, possibly leading to other key arms control agreements being jeopardized.

Both Russians and Americans committed trillions of dollars to wage a decades-long Cold War. It's now time that we commit a small percentage of those sums to rid ourselves of these dangerous wartime legacies that threaten our security, public health and the environment.

Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the former Soviet leader, is president of Green Cross International, an environmental organization in 26 countries whose work includes advancing the safe destruction of Cold War arsenals. The U.S. affiliate of Green Cross is Global Green USA. Web site: www.globalgreen.org.