Sometimes, international institutions are actually effective.
Such is the case, on Tuesday, with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. The OPCW just proved that Russia has again breached its commitments under the Chemical Weapons Convention.
The investigations and enforcement body for the Chemical Weapons Convention, the OPCW reports that its independent laboratories have found Novichok nerve agent biomarkers in samples taken from Alexei Navalny, a Russian investigative journalist. Navalny was poisoned in Tomsk, Russia, on Aug. 20 and after a delay orchestrated by the Russian FSB domestic security service, Navalny was evacuated to a Berlin hospital.
The hospital in Berlin detected traces of Novichok in Navalny, but the OPCW also took its own samples. That brings us back to today. And why the OPCW’s finding of Novichok is highly significant. After all, Novichok is only operationally accessible to the leaders of the big three Russian intelligence services; the GRU, FSB, and SVR. And is only deployable on Vladimir Putin’s authority.
The OPCW statement explains that “analysis by the OPCW designated laboratories of biomedical samples collected by the OPCW team and shared with the Federal Republic of Germany confirm that the biomarkers of the cholinesterase inhibitor found in Mr Navalny’s blood and urine samples have similar structural characteristics as the toxic chemicals belonging to schedules 1.A.14 and 1.A.15.” But the OCPW notes that, “This cholinesterase inhibitor is not listed in the Annex on Chemicals to the Convention.” Two notes of explanation. First, cholinesterase inhibitors are neurotoxins of the kind that form the basis for nerve agents. Second, the chemicals in the referenced 1.A.14 and 1.A.15 schedules refer to Novichok class agents. That’s the key takeaway.
in November 2019, with Russia’s agreement, the OPCW added those Novichok agents to its prohibited annex. Those additions followed the Russian GRU’s use of Novichok against various British citizens on United Kingdom soil between March and July 2018. A formal, legal part of the Chemical Weapons Convention since March 27, any use of the Novichok variants since that date represents an unambiguous legal breach of the Chemical Weapons Convention. Russia is a signatory to the convention. True, the OCPW says the specific cholinesterase inhibitor used on Navalny is not the exact same Novichok agent as those previously listed. But the OPCW says it is a Novichok variant.
This is Russia at its manipulation-of-the-West best. By using a Novichok variant outside of the November 2019 listings, Russia avoids an explicit breach of the annex. But it only does so under the very literal letter of the law. Russia and the OPCW know full well that only Russia employs the Novichok class agents. The use of this variant represents a very thin pretense of deniability and a simultaneous Chekist nod to the OPCW and the world.
Still, this second use of Novichok nerve agents in three years — Novichok variants make other nerve agents look pleasant in comparison — represents an obvious breach of Russia’s obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention. Under Article 1, Sections A and B of the Convention, signatories pledge not to “develop, produce, otherwise acquire, stockpile or retain chemical weapons, or transfer, directly or indirectly, chemical weapons to anyone,” and not to “use chemical weapons.”
This breach of the Chemical Weapons Convention should matter to the world. It illustrates Putin’s continuing disregard for the international norm against the use of these brutal weapons. To deter the continued use of these weapons by Russia or other parties, the United States and European Union must now sanction the Kremlin. A good place to start would be the Nord Stream II energy pipeline.
