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“The weapons terrify individuals and generate panic,” mentioned Leiv Okay. Sydnes, a chemist on the College of Bergen in Norway who has suggested the treaty group. “The army function is to undermine the belief of troopers and civilians of their shelters, fortifications and hiding locations.”
After the Chilly Conflict, a world treaty, the Chemical Weapons Conference, outlawed the event, manufacturing, stockpiling and use of chemical arms. The Group for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons polices the treaty from The Hague and depends on a world community of laboratories to check subject samples for indicators of outlawed utilization. The group has 193 member states, all signatories of the treaty.
When Russia signed the conference in 1993, it declared that it held greater than 40,000 tons of chemical weapons — the world’s largest such arsenal. Its munitions included mustard fuel, which burns the eyes and lungs, in addition to quite a lot of nerve brokers.
Not like Russia’s nuclear arms and the army doctrine for his or her use, Moscow after the Chilly Conflict by no means ran chemical warfare video games and subject workouts. However some consultants maintain that smaller-scale makes use of of chemical brokers and Russia’s involvement within the Syria battle present that Mr. Putin has a transparent attachment to chemical warfare.
In 2002, Russian safety brokers pumped a noxious fuel right into a Moscow theater to finish a hostage disaster, killing greater than 100 individuals. Officers defended the motion and mentioned it represented no violation of the chemical treaty — a declare that American consultants got here to dispute. Mr. Putin was Russia’s president on the time.
Consultants say the Kremlin’s darkest hour with chemical arms got here in Syria, the place it shielded the regime of President Bashar al-Assad from civil unrest and have become complicit in years of poisonous strikes towards rebels and civilian populations.
In August 2013, Mr. al-Assad’s forces shocked the world by firing poisonous chemical compounds on rebel-held cities close to the capital, Damascus, killing greater than 1,400 individuals, U.S. officers mentioned.
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