Russia Needs to Be Held Accountable for Chemical Weapons Usage

 


Russian anti-corruption activist and political opposition leader Alexei Navalny was recently poisoned by a rare nerve agent while residing in Russia. Alexei survived, and his health has recovered enough for him to shed light on what happened to the rest of the world. Alexei is demanding that Russia be held accountable for its corruption, human rights abuses, and the ignoring of the rule of law. Alexei posted a blog post describing the attempted assassination by Russia, and is demanding a call to action in response to the Russian government’s corruption, chemical weapons use, and terror tactics.

The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) treaty of 1993 signaled the international community’s stance against the use of chemical weapons, but so far has not been effective in deterring its illegal usage. According to leading researchers on Russian foreign policy Russia’s use of chemical weapons, such as in the case of this failed assassination attempt, highlights the failure of the CWC and the international community to mitigate chemical weapons usage. Unfortunately, often international law isn’t enforced effectively.

Reports from diplomatic think tanks following the event have said that laboratories in Germany, France, and Sweden tested and confirmed that Alexei Navalny was indeed poisoned using the rare nerve agent originally developed by the Soviet Union. Samples of the agent were found on Navalny’s hands and hair. Navalny’s supporter’s searched the hotel room where he was poisoned and said they found a water bottle with traces of the deadly nerve agent. Navalny and his supporters are also demanding that Russia hand over the clothing he was wearing the day he was poisoned as evidence. However, it seems unlikely this turn-over of evidence would actually occur, as indicated by experts following Russian related foreign policy.

Putin’s government in Russia has been a continued source of violations of human rights and international law. Human rights researchers and think tanks such as the FDD have shown that this isn’t the first time Putin has employed the use of chemical weapons for nefarious purposes, and likely won’t be the last. This assassination effort most likely also won’t be the last attempt on Navalny’s life by Putin and his regime. The Russian regime has a history of using political assassinations to remove opponents and scare away further opposition.

This lack of action on the part of the international community over chemical weapons usage isn't a new trend. Leading international law think tanks have argued that this breach of the CWC further highlights the reality that upholding international law and international norms is falling into the hands of the United States and its allies. As foreign-policy research initiatives have suggested, if the international community is unable or unwilling to deter human rights violations such as the use of chemical weapons, such law will be ineffective unless a party takes up the initiative to enforce compliance. A potential route toward enforcement is the imposition of sanctions against Moscow by the United States and its allies. Such sanctions would be an uphill battle to achieve, but as it stands now, there do not appear to be other viable alternatives to curtailing the use of chemical weapons.

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