THE HAGUE, April 15. /TASS/. Russia’s envoy to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Alexander Shulgin on Thursday said Moscow regularly informs the group and its members about chemical provocations that are being prepared in Ukraine.
"It’s important to preempt as our Defense Ministry does it: Report in advance the plans by Ukrainian nationalists and, this way, take away their trump cards," he told TASS. "To be honest, the delegations that can think share our concerns about the matter."
The diplomat said work at the OPCW has become extremely politicized and the group "is steadily evolving into a tool of applying pressure on the countries that fell out of grace with the US and its allies."
"A sweeping smear campaign has now been unleashed against our country both in the press and at the official level," Shulgin said. "Ukrainians are literally bombarding the technical secretariat of the OPCW with notes that Russia is about to use chemical weapons under the Ukrainian flag."
"Western countries, in turn, willingly support such attacks and openly declare that only Russia will be held responsible for any kind of incidents with toxic chemicals," he went on to say. "Thus, they, in fact, provide Ukrainians with a carte blanche for any kind of reckless moves with chemical weapons.".