THE HAGUE, April 16. /TASS/. Russian specialists who probed into the rumored use of chemical weapons in Syria’s Douma have found some participants in the faked video footage presented as evidence of an alleged chemical attack, Russia’s representative at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Aleksandr Shulgin, said at the 58th meeting of the OPCW Executive Council on Monday.
"Not a single witness or affected patient in hospital has been found. Nor any traces of chemical ammunition have been identified. Instead, we managed to find those who participated in filming the faked video, which was eventually presented as ‘proof’ of the chemical attack," Shulgin said. "They showed us the scenes in which they took part in the staged video. Both have medical education. They work for Douma’s ambulance service," he added.
Shulgin described the released video as a provocation and pointed to "pseudo-humanitarian NGOs, including the White Helmets" as its "makers."
"We said before and we are saying once again that these organizations are on the payroll of the governments of the United States, Britain and some other countries," he said. "They are paid agents, actors, who perform the role of backstage extras when they are asked to. For the Western countries’ money they make various faked videos and spread photographs with the most favored type of scenes - ‘poor children - victims of Assad’s bloody regime’."
Shulgin showed to the participants in the Executive Council’s meeting pictures of participants in such photo sessions proving well enough "the engaged actors all of a sudden rise from the dead and look alive and healthy."
"That children are used in such fakes is particularly disgusting," he said.
A number of NGO’s including the White Helmets have been claiming that chemical weapons were used in Syria’s Douma on April 7. The US, Britain and France dealt a missile strike last weekend against Syria’s military and civilian infrastructures ostensibly in retaliation for the alleged chemical attack by Syrian government forces. Staffers of the Russian center for the reconciliation of conflicting parties in Syria explored Douma on April 9 to find no traces of chemical weapons. Experts from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons arrived in Damascus on April 14 with the aim to proceed with the investigation.