Cleaning Up from the Cold War: Medical, Ecological and Psychological Aspects of the Russian Experience with Chemical Weapons Destruction

Abstract

The world community has long striven for the liquidation of chemical weapons of mass destruction. The 1925 Geneva treaty “On the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacterial Methods of Warfare” was the first international accord on chemical weapons prohibition. Signed by 125 countries, the USSR ratified the treaty in December 1927. The later development of the “Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and their Destruction” (henceforth “the Convention”) followed this early step and was undertaken with Russia's active participation. The Convention was signed by the Russian Federation in January 1993 and ratified by the State Duma in November 1997 with the decision to end chemical weapons stockpiling by 2007. As a signatory, Russia accepted international responsibilities for solving many interrelated problems, paramount among them was the protection of people and the environment (The Convention…, 1994, item 4).

Citation

Filatov, B.N., Klauchek, V.V., Britanov, N.G. and Klauchek, S.V. (2007), "Cleaning Up from the Cold War: Medical, Ecological and Psychological Aspects of the Russian Experience with Chemical Weapons Destruction", Edelstein, M.R., Tysiachniouk, M. and Smirnova, L.V. (Ed.) Cultures of Contamination (Research in Social Problems and Public Policy, Vol. 14), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 333-360. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0196-1152(06)14014-4