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DISINFO: Unlike the US, Russia eliminated all its stocks of chemical weapons

DISINFORMATION CASE DETAILS

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Chemical weapons/attack OPCW novichok Virus / bacteria threat

DISINFO: Unlike the US, Russia eliminated all its stocks of chemical weapons

SUMMARY

Our country [Russia], unlike the United States, eliminated all available stockpiles of chemical warfare agents in 2017. This fact has been documented by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. There is no point in arguing with this fact.

RESPONSE

A recurrent pro-Kremlin narrative that Russia shut down all its chemical weapons programmes while trying to make it seem as if the US is not committed to destroying its own stockpile.

In September 2017, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) did in fact confirm the full destruction of the 39,967 tonnes of chemical weapons possessed by Russia. However, in the following years, it has become clear that Russia still maintained a chemical weapons programme. The most prominent signals for these assumptions came after the Skripal poisoning in 2018 and the Navalny poisoning in 2020. Both cases involved Novichok, a nerve agent which was declared to the OPCW and included in the Chemical Weapons Convention only in 2019.

On the other side, White House has emphasised that the US “is in full compliance with its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Biological Weapons Convention and does not develop or possess such weapons anywhere”. This comes in accordance with previous reports that the US has destroyed about 90% of the chemical weapons stockpile in a process that started in June 2019, and it is scheduled to be eliminated by Dec. 31, 2023, after the construction of the necessary destruction facilities.

Read similar cases in our database claiming that the West fabricated Navalny poisoning story; or that Russia is ready to investigate the alleged use of Novichok; or that Russia destroyed its Novichok stockpile, but the US continues to produce it, or even that OPCW reports are made from the information provided by terrorists.

Disclaimer

Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

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