Chemical weapons: Russia’s position
Position of the Russian Federation on the intention of the United States to convene a special session of the Conference of the State Parties to the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
RUSSIA has consistently opposed the use of chemical weapons anywhere, under any circumstances. The commitment of our country to the goals and objectives of the Chemical Convention is confirmed by early completion in 2017 - three years prior to the due date - of the national programme for the destruction of chemical weapons arsenals.
We have always supported an impartial and independent investigation of the use of chemical weapons. Russia was at the source of the formation of a Joint Mechanism of the OPCW-United Nations on investigation in Syria, established on the basis of UN Security Council Resolution 2235. Russian Federation voted for the extension of its mandate (UN Security Council Resolution 2319) in 2016.
During the functioning of the OPCW Fact Finding Mission in Syria, the fundamental flaws in its work were revealed, which led to doubt its conclusions. Investigations were conducted remotely without visiting the scene of events, ignoring the basic norms of the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (CWC) on the collection and preservation of physical evidence, the biased information provided by the opposition was taken into account, the data of the Syrian authorities was not taken into account.
All of that has brought the question of reforming OPCW Fact Finding Mission in Syria in practical sphere. But the joint Bolivian-Russian-Chinese project proposed by us at the UN Security Council aimed at extending the mandate of the FFM and bringing its work in line with the high standards of the CWC, was blocked by Western partners - permanent members of the Security Council. They wanted to keep the FFM unchanged in order to continue to manipulate it for their own purposes. Thus, they bear full responsibility for the fact that the mechanism has ceased to exist.
Now the United States, Great Britain, France and some other countries are trying to implement on the OPCW site what they failed to do in New York. They expect to achieve a decision to allocate unaccustomed attributive functions to the OPCW.
The Russian side considers that to be a clear attempt to distort the mandate of the OPCW, to undermine the legal foundations on which it rests. These are destructive ambitions, with which the Russian side strongly disagrees. The only international body besides international courts that can identify the perpetrators and how to influence them when it comes to UN member states is the Security Council.
Instead of promoting destructive initiatives, we suggest that our partners urgently work to strengthen and improve the effectiveness of the OPCW’s field missions to establish the use of chemical weapons in Syria. This structure should finally start functioning according to the high standards of the CWC, and all its activities should be accountable to the governing bodies of the organisation.
By maximising the method of collecting and preserving physical evidence (chain of custody) in the documents of the OPCW, in practice, FFM uses it selectively. In some cases, the mission completely ignores this most important principle, first of all, when it comes to the information provided by the opposition forces to Damascus.
Read the full statement on www. herald.co.zw