DISINFO: New US sanctions based on false claim Russia violated Chemical Weapons Convention
SUMMARY
The United States has based its decision to impose new anti-Russian sanctions on the allegation that Moscow violated the Chemical Weapons Convention.
However, the exact chemical formula of the compound allegedly used to poison Alexei Navalny has not been disclosed. Moreover, the OPCW report on Navalny’s blood samples states that this compound is not included in the list of banned substances. What, then, are the grounds for blaming the attack on Russia?
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative on the poisoning of Russian activist Alexei Navalny.
There is irrefutable evidence of the Russian government's role in the attempted assassination of Navalny. The formula of the compound used in the poisoning is "contained in the classified report" by the OPCW Technical Secretariat. Even though the exact composition of the agent remains undisclosed, the same report reads:
"The biomarkers of the cholinesterase inhibitor found in Mr Navalny’s blood and urine samples have similar structural characteristics to the toxic chemicals belonging to schedules 1.A.14 and 1.A.15, which were added to the Annex on Chemicals to the Convention at the Twenty-Fourth Session of the Conference of the States Parties in November 2019" (para. 5, emphasis added).
This alone demonstrates that Navalny was poisoned with a weapons-grade chemical. Any toxic substance listed in Schedule 1 of the Annex on Chemicals must meet several criteria including, crucially, that it "possesses such lethal or incapacitating toxicity as well as other properties that would enable it to be used as a chemical weapon" (para. 1(b)(ii), emphasis added).
Russia is a member of the OPCW.