AN UPDATE ON THE CHEMICAL WEAPONS DESTRUCTION PROGRAM
Rossiya, September 3, 2001, p. 4
Chemical weapons, over 40,000 tons of them, are to be destroyed in Russia.
According to the initial timetable, all these weapons should be disposed of by April 29, 2007. But the governmental commission headed by Sergei Kirienko, presidential envoy for the Trans-Volga federal district, considers that the program requires at least another five years.
CHECHNYA OIL UPDATE
Izvestia, September 3, 2001, p. 2
According to Bautdin Khamidov, General Director of Grozneftegaz (Grozny Oil and Gas), there are thousands of illicit mini-refineries in Chechnya at present. Half the families in Chechnya depend on the low-quality gasoline they sell. At least 6 million tons of oil and almost 2 billion tons of gas, worth over $1 billion, have been stolen or have burned up in oil well fires over the last six years.
