Kaliningrad. March 25. INTERFAX NORTH-WEST - The differences between the EU, NATO and Russia should not become an obstacle to joint work on the elimination of chemical weapons submerged at the bottom of the Baltic Sea, according to Vadim Paka, Chief researcher of the Atlantic Department of the P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
"The acute issue of neutralizing chemical weapons at the bottom of the Baltic Sea has once again been raised in the European Union. It is proposed to solve it within the framework of cooperation between the EU and NATO. However, in previous years, Russian scientists actively cooperated with the EU and the military bloc on this issue, taking part in all international expeditions to the sites of chemical weapons flooding. Russia, despite its difficult relations with the EU and NATO, can and should participate in this promising project, having the scientific and technical capabilities to do so, "Paka told Interfax on Thursday.
According to him, promising neutralization technologies are being discussed by a group of Russian specialists in the EMERCOM of Russia. They intend to create a company and closely address this problem on the basis of ideas and proposals developed in the Atlantic Department of the Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
"We are consulting with them, working out various options for working with them. And the situation in the Baltic Sea is forcing them to accelerate. Ammunition lying on the bottom of the sea is depressurized, fishermen often lift pieces of mustard gas with nets...) There are no traces of toxic substances in the seawater samples taken near the ammunition. But the smallest doses are found in the bottom silt and its suspensions, they can be carried out by currents to other areas of the Baltic Sea, " the scientist noted.
At the same time, according to him, Japan is already successfully engaged in the neutralization of submerged chemical weapons of the Second World War. A special vessel has been built there, on board of which ammunition is lifted and destroyed in a special chamber there. Other technologies can also be used in the shallow Baltic, the expert said.
Paka recalled that in the area of the island of Bornholm in the depression is the largest burial of chemical weapons, the radius of which does not exceed 3 km. This territory, he believes, can be covered with a three-meter layer of soil with moraine clay, which will become a reliable sarcophagus for chemical weapons. Dredger vessels or dredgers will pick it up in the immediate vicinity-on the high ground of the sea floor, which is called the Slupsky threshold, the agency's interlocutor explained.
"If Russia and the EU manage to launch such a project, it will go on for many years. Submerged chemical weapons are not only in the Danish Bornholm, but also off the coast of Norway, Sweden, and England. So only in the area of the Swedish Gothenburg in the Strait zone there are 150 thousand tons of chemical weapons in the submerged ships, " the scientist added.
He recalled that in mid-March, MEPs demanded that the European Commission take immediate action to neutralize and eliminate chemical weapons from the Second World War at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. The deputies call for the inclusion of the problem as one of the areas of cooperation between the European Union and NATO, as well as by starting research work within the framework of the programs of the European Defense Agency.
