Shulgin: The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is mired in political games

Moscow (ST): Russia renewed its criticism of Western countries’ continuing to politicize the work of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and use its authority to impose its vision and interests, noting that the Organization’s reports on Syria are the best evidence of this.

Russia’s permanent representative to the OPCW , Alexander Shulgin, said in a press statement published in Moscow today: “It must be recognized that we are witnesses to a real crisis stage in the history of the Organization, which is immersed more and more in political games played by a small group of countries.”

 He added: This Organization, which was once an international technical structure successfully performing its tasks in the field of chemical weapons disarmament, is now becoming more like a court for suing countries that some do not like, pointing out that “in the Hague arena, it is increasingly and steadily replacing international law, especially with regard to the provisions of the OPCW treaty, with artificial rules invented by our Western partners.”

 Shulgin went on to say that the most headache-inducing thing is the activity of the illegal verification and identification committee that works on fabricating and identifying culprits using chemical weapons, as this is not intended to search for actual culprits, but rather to fabricate them.”

He said: “We became more convinced of this after the release of the second report on Syria, as the activity of the verification and identification committee is more and more paralyzing the work of the Organization and makes it difficult to agree on taking important documents,” noting that what is currently happening in The Hague is a matter of great concern to Russia.

K.Q.