Russia destroys half of its chemical weapons

Moscow: Russia has destroyed more than half of its stockpile of chemical weapons and the remainder would be gone by 2015, a senior official said Wednesday.

Some 21,000 tonnes of chemical weapons have been destroyed, Vasily Bogomolov, Deputy Director of the Federal Special Construction Agency, was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

In line with international obligations, Russia is supposed to destroy 40,000 tonnes of chemical weapons by 2015, said Bogomolov, who is responsible for construction of facilities for destroying such weapons in the country.

There are at least six chemical weapons destroying facilities in Russia.

Russia was to have destroyed all such weapons by April 29, 2012. But it postponed the deadline to 2015 due to lack of funding.