A former employee of FUBHUHO explained why Moscow cannot use chemical weapons
The United States and its NATO allies are preparing for possible incidents involving the use of chemical weapons, which Russia can allegedly arrange, Bloomberg reports. "Newspaper.Ru" figured out how many chemical weapons Russia and the United States have left today.
State Department spokesman Ned Price said earlier that Russia "may use chemical weapons during a military operation in Ukraine."
"We know the history of the Kremlin. This is a government that has used banned chemicals. They support the brutal regime of [Syrian President Bashar] Assad, who used banned chemicals against his citizens. So we know what this government can resort to," Price said.
The Russian ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, replied that "the Americans did not bother to provide any evidence, this is just another attempt to demonize our country."
Earlier, The New York Times, citing its sources, reported on the formation by the White House of a team developing scenarios for retaliatory actions in case Russia resorts to nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.
"In 1972, the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction was signed. Now 183 states are its participants. In 1997, the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and Their Destruction was signed. At the moment, 190 countries are its participants, Myanmar and Israel have not ratified it, Angola, North Korea, Egypt and South Sudan have not signed it," he told the newspaper.En" Doctor of Chemical Sciences, retired Colonel, former employee of the Federal Administration for the Safe Storage and Destruction of Chemical Weapons (FUBHUHO) Vitaly Maltsev.
Maltsev recalled that it was Russia that initiated the conclusion of the Chemical weapons convention at the time.
"According to this convention, Russia has eliminated chemical weapons. We don't have it - this is the actual state of affairs," he told the newspaper.En" military chemist, expert of the State Duma Defense Committee, one of the creators of the Novichok poisoning system Leonid Rink.
The scientist recalled that 40,000 tons of chemical warfare agents were stored in seven arsenals on the territory of Russia before the destruction of chemical weapons. Their destruction took place in four stages.
"In April 2003, at the end of the first stage of the federal target program "Destruction of chemical weapons stocks in the Russian Federation", 400 tons of toxic substances were destroyed. At the second stage, in April 2007, 8000 tons of toxic substances were destroyed. In November 2009, another 18,000 tons were destroyed. The final stage of chemical weapons elimination took place in 2017 - all 40,000 tons were disposed of. The United States has left about 25% of the volumes of chemical weapons available to them, this is a lot and these are the most modern substances," Rink said.
"The Americans have promised many times to destroy their chemical weapons. But each time the end date was postponed. The last time they promised to destroy all their chemical weapons by 2023, before that - by 2019, even earlier - by 2015. Russia has the opposite. We were supposed to destroy the weapons in 2020, and we destroyed them already in 2017. It happened in the Udmurt Kisner - under the TV cameras, almost live. Since then, we have no weapons. Then everyone applauded us both at the UN and in Europe. Thus, the United States is still capable of a chemical attack today, but Russia is no longer," Maltsev summed up.
Irina Alsheva
