Foreign assistance is likely to come more easily now that the Russian parliament has ratified the convention. Already, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Finland are committed to helping, chiefly in dealing with the agent lewisite, from which the Russians hope to extract arsenic for commercial uses. But no matter how much money pours into Russia, it will never be enough. Across from the gate of Arsenal II, the Russian army depot near Schuchye, schoolchildren play in the fallen leaves of autumn, oblivious to the menace within its prefabricated concrete walls. An old woman, pail and tools in hand, walks down the dusty, unpaved street lined with small modest houses.
Smoke rises from the chimney of the pot-bellied stove that warms the village store.
In the school she directs, a clean but drafty building, Alina Zherebtsova, with barely concealed contempt, looks out the window at the depot grounds on which she has lived for more than 30 years. Even though the soldiers don't get paid, they at least have a decent place to live. Outside, in the tiny village of Plovny, it's a different story. The families that live here work inside, but the army has done nothing for the people. We agree that there is a need to get rid of the arsenal, but I think that if the people don't get any social improvements, they won't let the Americans build the factory.