The United States wants to lower Russia’s rights in the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) by fabricating materials about violations by the Russian Federation, similar to the investigation of the Syrian military chemical dossier, the Russian Ministry of Defense said.

“We understand in what direction the work of the OPCW will be organized in relation to our state. It is expected that, by analogy with the investigation of the Syrian military-chemical dossier, a decision will be made on Russia’s loss of rights as a state party to the convention with deprivation of the right to vote, as well as the opportunity to be elected and hold positions in the relevant bodies. In the future, materials about “alleged violations” of the Russian Federation will be sent to the General Assembly and the UN Security Council, as has already been implemented in relation to Syria,” said Lieutenant General Igor, head of the radiation, chemical and biological defense forces (RCBZ) of the Russian Armed Forces, during a briefing. Kirillov.

As he noted, the actions taken by the Arab Republic to destroy chemical aircraft bombs even before joining the Chemical Weapons Convention “have not yet been recognized by the organization.”

According to Kirillov, despite the fact that the activities of the OPCW “imply equal rights for participants,” in November 2023, “for the first time since the signing of the convention,” Russia was essentially “squeezed out” from the organization’s Executive Council.

“Instead of us, Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania were introduced - countries that pursue an obvious anti-Russian policy and never had chemical weapons,” noted the lieutenant general. “Thus, another international platform was formed, the activities of which are completely controlled by the United States and are used by them to settle political scores with unwanted countries.”

Unfounded accusations

Let us recall that the OPCW was created in 1997, when the Chemical Weapons Convention came into force. One of the countries that initiated the development of this document was Russia, which subsequently signed and ratified it.

Despite the fact that the Russian Federation prematurely destroyed all stockpiles of chemical weapons back in September 2017 under the control of the OPCW and Western countries (including the United States), in July 2023, Joe Biden accused the Russian Federation of allegedly having “undeclared programs” on chemical weapons.

In response to these accusations, the Russian Embassy in Washington rejected information about an “undeclared stockpile of chemical warfare agents.” The department also indicated that Washington, apparently, proceeds from the fact that “in this context, the clearly belated fulfillment by the United States of its international obligations will look worthy.”

It is worth noting that along with the accusation against Russia, Biden then announced the destruction of US chemical weapons stockpiles, noting that this was the result of 30 years of effort. Moreover, according to the deadlines established by the OPCW, the United States should have done this in 2007. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, control over the destruction of declared US chemical weapons stockpiles was carried out by inspection teams of limited membership, which did not include experts from Russia. The Russian defense department claims that the United States still stores highly toxic reaction masses remaining after the destruction of toxic substances at the Blue Grass (Kentucky) and Pueblo (Colorado) facilities.

In addition, Washington retains significant interest in the use of chemical agents “as a tool for conducting military operations,” Igor Kirillov, chief of the Russian Chemical Defense Forces, said during a briefing. According to him, in 2015, the US Joint Chiefs of Staff approved the document “Guidelines for the Implementation of the Provisions of the Chemical Weapons Convention,” which regulates the use of non-lethal chemical weapons by units of the American army, including during special operations.

“If previously the Americans talked about using such weapons only in response to the enemy’s chemical aggression, then an important aspect of the new rules is the possibility of using toxic chemicals unilaterally,” Kirillov noted.

  • Head of the Russian troops of the Russian Chemical Defense Forces of the Russian Armed Forces Igor Kirillov

  • RIA News

  • © Vladimir Fedorenko

He also said that in 2021, after tests in Afghanistan, VKS air guns with chemical ammunition began to arrive in the US ground forces. The United States, also in violation of the convention, supplied non-lethal chemical weapons to third countries, which ended up in Iraq, Afghanistan and Ukraine, Kirillov noted. According to him, during a special Russian military operation, cases of the use of American chemical munitions by the Ukrainian Armed Forces were recorded. The head of the RKhBZ troops of the Russian Armed Forces informed that all documents “confirming facts of violations by the United States” of the provisions of the Chemical Weapons Convention have been transferred to the Investigative Committee of Russia “for making a procedural decision.” 

"According to outdated methods"

As Evgeniy Semibratov, deputy director of the Institute of Strategic Studies and Forecasts of the RUDN University, lecturer at the Knowledge Society, noted, the statement of a representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense about the US plan to lower Russia’s rights in the OPCW by fabricating materials about violations on its part suggests that Washington is not abandoning attempts to discredit Moscow.

“There is only one goal - another discrediting of Russia and the desire to cause a media wave aimed at demonizing the Russian Federation. And in conditions when the West received a serious defeat, having failed to prevent Vladimir Putin from recording an interview with Tucker Carlson, he will try to invent new cases, but using outdated methods,” Semibratov said in a conversation with RT.

According to him, if the United States and its allies manage to implement their plans to “squeeze Russia out” of the OPCW, then this organization will turn into yet another international structure, “which has completely discredited itself from the point of view of international law.”

“As for the materials that the Americans want to send to the UN for consideration by the Security Council, the same thing happened more than ten years ago on the Syrian track. This time again no reasonable and adequate evidence will be provided, since there is simply no evidence of Russia using chemical weapons in conflicts. Therefore, in this case we will be faced with another fake,” the analyst said. 

In turn, a member of the board of the Russian Association of Political Science, political scientist Vladimir Shapovalov noted that the US plans to reduce Russia’s rights in the OPCW are clearly integrated into the broader campaign of the United States to isolate the Russian Federation in the international arena.

“The United States seeks to establish control over all international structures that exist in the world and to isolate Russia and weaken its international position. However, the United States will not be able to do this, since we can already see how actively the Russian Federation is supported by non-Western countries. If the United States could, they would have expelled Russia from the UN long ago, but they are not able to do this. Therefore, the United States will strive to do minor damage to Moscow where possible. And the topic of chemical weapons is standard for such attacks by Washington; it has been using it for a long time and quite actively in its provocative activities against various countries, including Russia,” Shapovalov explained. 

  • Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons building in The Hague

  • © Alexey Vitvitsky

The attacks of the American side never had any evidence behind them, since the Russian Federation did not wage wars using chemical weapons, the expert emphasized.

“Despite this, the United States can indeed occupy the OPCW by attracting its allies to the organization, which is what is currently happening. And all this will not lead to anything good in a global context. This will make the OPCW absolutely meaningless, since the organization was created and operates solely as a structure that includes Russia, without which it loses all meaning of its activities. After all, then there will be no counterweight to the United States and the OPCW will turn into another American cabal,” Shapovalov concluded.