The agreement between the Russian and French governments on cooperation in destroying chemical weapons stocks in the Russian Federation was signed 14 February 2006 in Moscow.
The agreement represents a first step towards creating a legal basis for Russia to use voluntary French financial and technical help to implement its priority programme designed to destroy Russian chemical weapons stocks, establish and maintain installations to oversee the destruction of these weapons, and also to resolve environmental problems connected with this process.
The law proposes that, as part of the Agreement, France participate in establishing a system for environmental monitoring at the installation to destroy chemical weapons in the city of Shchuchye in the Kurgan Region. (The French party plans to allocate a preliminary sum of six million euros to this project.)
The Agreement determines which authorized bodies from both parties are responsible for implementing the Agreement, the conditions for tax and customs exemptions, the procedures regulating the exemption from civil liability for injurious actions and for settling potential claims and disagreements.