Biological weapons allegation against Ukraine
Putin is playing with old tactics
From Sarah Platz
03/10/2022, 7:12 p.m
Russia accuses Ukraine of developing bioweapons on behalf of the United States. The accusation quickly turns out to be false, but the US government is alarmed: It would not be the first time that Moscow has used such a maneuver and planned its own operations.
“It’s all an obvious ruse by Russia,” Jen Psaki warned on Twitter. US President Joe Biden’s spokeswoman says Russia has accused Ukraine of developing chemical or biological weapons on behalf of the US government. The Russian Foreign Ministry also wrote on Twitter about the evidence found that Kyiv is “eliminating traces of the Pentagon-funded military-biological program in Ukraine”. The US government has described the allegations as “ridiculous”. In fact it has international report sheet of nuclear scientists they have long since been refuted. The United Nations also refer to misinformation. UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in New York that the World Health Organization was “not aware of any activities by the Ukrainian government that conflict with its international treaty obligations, including chemical or biological weapons.”
It sounds like classic Russian war propaganda that is hardly worth spreading or discussing. However, this accusation from Moscow alarmed the US government and the British secret service. They see it as a strategic pretext for the Kremlin “to justify another, unjustified attack on Ukraine.”
The US government assumes this trick because it would not be the first time that Moscow has used it. In previous conflicts, too, Russia implemented exactly what it had previously accused its opponent of doing. During the Syrian war, Moscow repeatedly accused the anti-Assad groups of using chemical weapons such as chlorine gas against the Syrian regime and the civilian population.
However, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) concluded that it was Moscow’s ally, the regime of Bashar al-Assad, that was behind several high-profile attacks using unconventional weapons. The Independent International Commission of Inquiry set up by the UN Human Rights Council also documented more than 30 chemical attacks between 2013 and the end of 2017, of which at least 25 could be traced back to the Syrian military supported by Russia.
“Good experiences” from Syria
However, Moscow has repeatedly denied the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime. Similar to the allegation of bioweapons plans by the USA in Ukraine, the Kremlin also accused the West during the Syrian war. Russian state media have claimed that the West is staging chemical attacks to make Moscow look bad. The Russian channel “Russia 1” showed scenes from the shooting of “Revolution Man” and claimed that they were images of the staging of the chlorine gas attack in the Syrian Duma, in which around 40 people died in 2018.
A former NATO officer told the Guardian that Russian President Vladimir Putin has experience with such allegations that he can now use in Ukraine. “He’s also learned that heavy explosives can win victory in the spotlight of the western media. And since he’s extremely effective at controlling his own population, he has little to fear at home.”
Charles Lister, head of the Syria and counter-terrorism program at the Middle East Institute in Washington DC, also assumes in the “Guardian” that Putin “definitely learned and used some tactics” in Syria. This also includes the assumption by the Russian head of government that something like the use of chemical weapons is possible with impunity. “He has learned not to stick to international borders,” Lister is quoted as saying by the newspaper.
Use of chemical weapons against Navalny and Skripal
In principle, the use of chemical weapons constitutes a war crime – the development, manufacture, stockpiling and use of these weapons of mass destruction are prohibited by an international treaty, the Chemical Weapons Convention. It was signed by 193 countries, including Russia, Ukraine and the United States. However, the Assad regime was not condemned even in cases in which the OPCW and the United Nations came to the conclusion that it had been proven to use poison gas – Russia voted against it with its veto in the UN Security Council.
The Kremlin has a “long and well-documented track record of using chemical weapons,” Biden spokeswoman Psaki wrote in her recent warning on Twitter. A chemical weapon was also used against the opposition politician Alexei Navalny – the Kremlin critic was poisoned with a chemical nerve agent from the Novichok group. The same fate befell former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal. While Great Britain blames the Russian secret service for the attack, Moscow denies any responsibility. Instead, the theory is being spread that the West or Ukraine are behind the crime.
The tactic of mirroring one’s own allegations has a long tradition in Moscow. “Russia accuses the West of exactly the same violations that it commits itself,” says Psaki, summing up Russia’s actions in recent years. Insinuating that Ukraine and the US have a bioweapons plan is a ploy to further escalate the war. Recently, the defense ministry has accused Ukrainian biolabs of helping spread “particularly dangerous infections,” Russia’s Ria news agency reported. “US-funded biolabs in Ukraine have been experimenting with the coronavirus in bats,” the news site quoted Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov as saying.
Russia follows “clear pattern”
In return, US Secretary of State Victoria Nuland has already warned that Russian troops could occupy bio-research facilities in Ukraine. The US government “is working with the Ukrainians on how to prevent these research materials from falling into the hands of Russian forces,” she said at a US Senate hearing.
Nor can it be ruled out that Moscow will send its own weapons of mass destruction to the neighboring country. Now that Russia has made these false claims about Ukraine’s alleged bioweapons, Paski said, “we must expect Russia itself to use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine.” One must just as well expect that Russian troops will foist such false-flag use of weapons of mass destruction on Ukraine. Russia follows “a clear pattern of behavior”.