[CPEO-MEF] U.S. frees funds for Russian chemical weapons destruction

[CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

Russia
Posted Jan. 16, 2003
U.S. frees funds for Russian chemical weapons destruction
Disposal facility goal of Appleton sister city project
By Kara Patterson
Post-Crescent staff writer

APPLETON — The release of nearly a half-billion dollars in frozen funds
intended for chemical weapons destruction in Russia will resonate next
week in the Fox Cities.

The U.S. Cooperative Threat Reduction program money, held up for a year,
includes more than $150 million that will drive the construction of a
weapons disposal facility in Appleton’s rural sister city region of
Shchuchye.

President Bush signed a waiver for the money’s release Friday and is
expected to officially notify Congress by early next week.

When Shchuchye Mayor Irina Mizina arrives in the Fox Cities for the
first time Sunday, as part of a domestic violence prevention delegation,
members of the Fox Cities-Kurgan Sister Cities Program will welcome her
with news she may not yet have received.

“This, on top of all the other issues we’ll be talking about, will draw
us even closer together, and will reaffirm our commitment to collaborate
with one another,” said Deb Nugent, the executive director of Sister
Cities.

American and Russian engineers already have broken ground on the
construction site, near the flimsy wooden storage sheds that encase
about 2 million artillery shells and missile warheads filled with deadly
nerve gases.

This article can be viewed at:
http://www.wisinfo.com/postcrescent/news/archive/local_8153350.shtml

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