Russia is worried that Western powers could decide to stage a biological weapons attack in order to provoke and blame Moscow, the country’s top diplomat suggested at the United Nations Security Council Wednesday.
“The way things are developing gives us reason to think that nothing can be excluded today, including a provocation involving biological weapons,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.
Russia has been accused of complicity in repeated chemical weapons attacks. The most direct charge involved the use of “a military grade nerve agent” in an attempt to assassinate a former Russian double agent who was given British citizenship. But President Vladimir Putin’s government also has partnered with Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, whom U.S. and European leaders blame for the use of chemical weapons on Syrian rebel groups and civilians hostile to his regime. Russia defends Assad from such charges, blaming them on terrorists and Western conspiracies.
Lavrov’s comments introduced the fear of a biological attack into the recent UNSC debates. “Given the attempts I just mentioned to manipulate the status of the Chemical Weapons Convention, I’d like to warn against the temptation of using the convention on biological and toxin Weapons for the same end,” he said.
That was a reference to Western efforts to empower the Organization for the Prohibition of the Use of Chemical Weapons to identify the perpetrators of gas attacks when their investigators confirm that the attacks took place. Lavrov said that such a “so-called attribution function” violates international law that bans chemical weapons, and is an “infringement on the prerogatives of the Security Council.”
Russia blocked a Joint Investigative Mechanism established by the Security Council and the OPCW to probe gas attacks in Syria, claiming that the assessments of Assad’s guilt were politically motivated. Lavrov raised the specter of biological attacks weeks after U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley said Russia makes such accusations in the run-up to war crimes committed by the Assad regime.
“As in the past, the Syrian regime and its Russian and Iranian allies are spreading lies about who is behind chemical weapons attacks in Syria,” Haley said at a Sept. 6 meeting of the UNSC. “In fact, if the past is any guide, the Syrian and Russian attempts to blame others for the use of chemical agents is an indication that the Syrian regime still believes it can use these horrific weapons with impunity and an indication that the Syrian regime may preparing to use these horrific weapons in future attacks. No one — I repeat — no one is fooled.”
