Sergey Antipov said that to the Interfax agency in March. Before 2004, Russia allocated more money for the submarines’ dismantling, but last year the shares became equal. Russia did not reduce financing and continues to allocate about $72m annually, while the foreign partners have significantly increased financial assistance. He said it had taken three years for the paper work and now more and more contracts are being signed what shows the results. All the retired nuclear submarines should be scrapped by 2010. Today 84 nuclear submarines have to be decommissioned.

According to the head of the Federal Nuclear Agency Alexander Rumyantsev, $4 billion is needed for nuclear submarines’ decommissioning program till 2010, SPB-TASS reported. 59 retired nuclear submarines still have nuclear fuel onboard, Rumyantsev added. Fifteen submarines are scheduled for dismantling by the end of 2005. The price tag for this year dismantling is $120-130m, he concluded.

The G8 "Global Partnership against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction WMD" issued by the world’s eight leading industrial nations – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Russia Federation, the UK and the US–at the G8 Summit on 27 June 2002, is an initiative aimed at accounting, securing and clearing up Russia’s nuclear legacy.