DISINFO: Russia got rid of chemical weapons, unlike the US
SUMMARY
Washington positions itself as the leader of the fight against the use of chemical weapons, such as in the case of Navalny's poisoning, but it did not destruct its chemical weapon stockpile as Russia did years ago.
RESPONSE
Recurring disinformation rejecting that Russia was involved in using chemical weapons, particularly in the poisoning of Russian opposition figures, such as Sergei Skripal and Alexei Navalny.
Both the US and Russia are signatories to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), which was created to eliminate chemical weapons altogether. Both had a deadline of 2007 to get rid of their chemical stockpiles, but both received extensions. Russia announced the completion of its effort in 2017, while the US announced the start of the destruction of the last stockpile in Kentucky in 2019.
It must be noted that former US President Richard Nixon declared in 1969 that US research in the field would focus on defensive R&D, renouncing US offensive biological warfare capability. This was not mirrored in Soviet military doctrines.
As for the two particular recent cases, the fact of Navalny's poisoning with a Novichok-type agent had been established during his stay at the Charite hospital. These findings were later independently corroborated by labs in France and Sweden, and finally confirmed by the OPCW (which Russia is also a member of). Following this attack, the United Kingdom notified the OPCW, invited them to confirm the identity of the substance involved, and briefed members of the Security Council. The OPCW’s independent expert laboratories confirmed the UK’s identification of the Russian produced Novichok nerve agent. So, a weapons grade nerve agent (chemical weapon) was used against Navalny in Russia by units of the Russian security service.