The sale of the Mistrals is by far the most prominent example, but present-day Russia is far more open to foreign defense technology than was the Soviet Union which, as the articles state, had a standing policy of manufacturing all of its own weapons systems.

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In 1997, for instance, the verification system for the Chemical Weapons Treaty was devised by the world's chemical-manufacturing associations.

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Given the importance of all kinds of chemicals to industry around the world and the ease with which virtually any fertilizer, pharmaceutical or plastics manufacturing plant can be used, when required, to make a batch of weapons agent, no ban on production can solve or even substantially mitigate the chemical weapons problem.

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