Mine ban policy overview

Policy

The Russian Federation has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty. In December 2009, a Russian diplomat reiterated that Russia cannot accede at the moment due to the military utility of antipersonnel mines, the lack of viable alternatives, and the financial difficulties in destroying its large stockpile within four years.[1] However, Russia has also expressed support for the treaty’s humanitarian objectives.[2] In June 2009, a Russian official said that Russia is committed to the objective of a mine-free world, but stressed that any prohibition must take into account national security considerations. According to the official, Russia’s accession to the Mine Ban Treaty is dependent on “solving a number of technical, financial and other tasks” related to implementation.[3]

Russia attended as an observer the Second Review Conference of the Mine Ban Treaty in Cartagena, Colombia, in November–December 2009. It also attended the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in Geneva in June 2010. Russian representatives did not make any formal statements at either event. Prior to the Second Review Conference, the last Mine Ban Treaty meeting Russia attended was in May 2003.

Russia is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and its Amended Protocol II on landmines.[4] It submitted a national annual report as required by Article 13 on 30 September 2009.  Russia joined CCW Protocol V on explosive remnants of war on 16 May 2008 and has submitted two annual transparency reports.

Russia reports that in order to comply with Amended Protocol II, a “National System of Technical Requirements for Landmines including antipersonnel and other than antipersonnel ones was elaborated and adopted; planned disposal of obsolete landmines is underway; new, more effective types of detection and demining tools are developed and commissioned. Marking of mine fields at the national boarder of the Russian Federation is fulfilled in full compliance with Paragraph 1 of the RF Federal Law #158FZ of December 7, 2004, ‘On Ratification of Amended Protocol II.…’”[5]

Production, transfer, stockpiling, and destruction

Russia has produced at least 10 types of antipersonnel mines since 1992, including blast mines (PMN, PMN-2, PMN-4, and PFM-1S) and fragmentation mines (POMZ-2, OZM-72, MON-50, MON-90, MON-100, and MON-200). Russia has stated on several occasions that its production of blast mines stopped in 1997.[6] Russia has been conducting research on modifications to existing landmines, new landmines, and alternatives to landmines since at least 1997.[7]

Russia has had a moratorium on the export of antipersonnel mines that are not detectable or not equipped with self-destruct devices since 1 December 1994. The moratorium formally expired in 2002, but Russian officials have stated, most recently in June 2009, that it is still being observed.[8] Russia is not known to have made any state-approved transfers of any type of antipersonnel mine since 1994.  Antipersonnel mines of Soviet/Russian origin have been found emplaced in at least 28 mine-affected countries.[9]

In November 2004, Russia for the first time released official information on the number of antipersonnel mines in its stockpiles, when Minister of Defense Sergei Ivanov cited a figure of 26.5 million. The minister forecast that approximately 23.5 million of these antipersonnel mines would be destroyed between 2005 and 2015.[10]  According to official statements, it appears that Russia has destroyed millions of stockpiled antipersonnel mines since 2004.[11]

Russian officials have acknowledged that Russian military units in other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States maintain antipersonnel mine stockpiles, such as 18,200 in Tajikistan and an unknown number in Georgia (Abkhazia).[12]

Use

Since 1999, Russian forces have used antipersonnel mines in Chechnya, but also at times in Dagestan, Tajikistan, and on the border with Georgia.[13] Russia has argued that its mine use has been necessary to stop flows of weapons, drugs, and terrorists, and maintained that it has been in full compliance with CCW Amended Protocol II on landmines.[14]

In June 2006, Russian officials confirmed to Landmine Monitor that Russian forces continued to use antipersonnel mines in Chechnya, both newly emplaced mines and existing defensive minefields.[15] Since 2006, Landmine Monitor has stated each year it will continue to cite Russia as an ongoing and active user of antipersonnel mines until an official denial is made and confirmed by the facts on the ground.

In December 2009, at the Second Review Conference, the head of the Russian delegation told Landmine Monitor that during the previous few years Russia had not planted new antipersonnel mines on the territory of Russia including the Northern Caucasus republics.[16] During interviews with Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor, military engineers and officers in the northern Caucasus also denied use in recent years.[17]

In light of these denials, and the fact that there have been no confirmed instances—or even serious allegations—of new use of antipersonnel mines by Russian forces in 2009 or 2010 in Chechnya or elsewhere, Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor will not identify Russia as a user of antipersonnel mines in this reporting period. This is the first time since the inception of Landmine Monitor in 1999 that Russia has not been listed as a user.

Use by non-state actors

A Russian farmer was convicted in February 2010 after planting three antipersonnel mines around his field to stop the theft of potatoes from his farm in the eastern region of Primorye near the border with China.  In August 2009, an intruder set off one of the tripwire-type mines and was injured in the blast. The 73-year-old farmer, Alexander Skopintsev, was convicted for the unlawful construction and storage of weapons and received a two and a half year suspended sentence.[18]

The Russian domestic media regularly reports stories of bombings and attacks against state structures conducted by insurgent, separatist, or criminal groups in the Caucasus regions of Chechnya, Dagestan, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, North Ossetia, and other locations. While many reports referred to “landmines,” it appears that in most cases armed groups used command-detonated improvised explosive devices (IEDs), time-delay bombs, or antivehicle mines, according to available information in media reports.[19] Casualties from antipersonnel mines continue to occur, but the date of placement of mines, or who emplaced them, is rarely certain.

The so-called Armed Forces of the Caucasus Emirate, an armed group active in Chechnya and nearby areas, provides details, photographs and videos of their use of “landmines” against Russian forces, most of which appear to be command-detonated bombs.[20] According to information provided by the group: on 24 February 2010, after arriving at the site of an explosion in Grozny’s Avtorkhanvoskiy district that destroyed a military truck and police car, a deminer checking the area set off what was described as a landmine and was killed along with a mine detection dog;[21] on 26 February 2010, a Russian officer was injured by an antipersonnel mine or explosive booby-trap left by the insurgents;[22] and on 31 March 2010, near the village of Gansolchu in Chechnya, a local security officer was killed by a landmine planted by the insurgents.[23] 

There have also been reports of use of antivehicle mines. In January 2010, an unknown group placed four antivehicle mines on the rail line near the town of Mozdok in North Ossetia.[24] On 17 August 2009, a policeman was killed and two other policemen in were serious condition after a police car hit a landmine in Makhachkala.[25]