On April 4, Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on International Affairs, joined other Russian officials in denying that Russian forces were guilty of atrocities against civilians in the city of Bucha, Ukraine.
Slutsky lashed out at Great Britain, which holds the presidency of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), after Russia couldn’t get a meeting about his accusation that Ukraine was the party responsible for the “provocation” in Bucha.
Slutsky claimed that the images of dead civilians in areas from which Russian soldiers had withdrawn were “staged”.
“The alleged evidence of mass death of local civilians emerged only after agents of the Ukrainian security service SBU entered the city. Is this not reminiscent of the fake White Helmets chemical attacks in Syria’s Douma and the subsequent refusal of Western countries to investigate the real details of what happened? Slutsky said.
That is false.
Independent investigators and media reports have assessed that the April 2018 chemical attack in the Syrian city of Douma likely took place.
In addition to his Duma post, Slutsky is a senior member of Russia’s negotiating team with Ukraine. In 2014, the The United States government imposed sanctions about him in connection with Russia’s forcible annexation of Crimea.
Slutsky made reference to the White Helmets because of Russia’s long-running propaganda war against the group, particularly co-founder James Le Mesurier, a British veteran. Le Mesurier was found dead outside his apartment in Turkey in 2019. Turkish police said they suspected he had committed suicide.
The White Helmets, or Syrian Civil Defence, is a first responder team that has focused on both search and rescue and documentation of war crimes during the Syrian civil war. In 2017, a documentary about the White Helmets won an Oscar.
However, the Syrian and Russian media have demonized the group, accusing its members of organizing chemical weapons attacks and collaborating with terrorist groups. Syrian government forces have directly attacked the group, and members of its staff have been killed in several attacks.
The White Helmets played a role in both the search and rescue and the documentation of the chemical attack in Douma. The April 2018 incident occurred during the final confrontation between Syrian President Basar Assad’s regime and rebel groups near the capital Damascus.
Three rebel groups controlled separate enclaves in Rif Dimashq governorate in eastern Ghouta. Rebels in two of the enclaves were facing defeat and negotiated evacuation, but Jaish al-Islam, which controlled Douma, refused to relinquish control of the city.
After a round of failed negotiations, Syrian warplanes bombed Douma. The Violations Documentation Center (VDC), an independent monitoring group, reported two incidents in which bombs containing toxic substances were thrown. Two yellow cylinders containing chemical gas were found on the roof of one building and in a bedroom in a different building.
The White Helmets issued a statement demanding a ceasefire and called for an investigation by teams from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), a treaty group.
Reporters from Russian media outlets RT and TV Zvezda immediately claimed that the attacks were staged and that the cylinders had been brought to the sites, not dropped by planes from Syrian regime-controlled airspace.
Forensic ArchitectureAn organization that uses architectural techniques to investigate human rights violations said reconstructed models of the two sites support the conclusion that the cylinders were dropped from the air.
A separate investigation by The New York Times in 2018 it also found that the Assad regime was responsible for the chemical attack in Douma. According to the Times, that he got a leaked United Nations report49 people died, including 11 children, from exposure to a chlorine-like substance.
the syrian regime denied the accusations that it had used chemicals, and Russia has consistently claimed that the Douma attack was “set up”.
Backing his ally, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov declared a few days after the incident: “Irrefutable evidence that this was another attack, organized with the participation of the special services of a state that strives to be at the forefront of the Russophobic campaign.”
An OPCW fact-finding mission investigated allegations that chemical weapons had been used by Syrian government forces during the country’s civil war. In 2019, the mission issued his final report on the chemical attack on Douma. He indicated that reactive chlorine, which does not exist in nature, was found in samples taken at the site.
The mission also investigated two locations where, according to the Syrian regime, the rebels produced chemical weapons. The mission said it found no raw materials or equipment at these locations that could be used to make chemical weapons, specifically nerve gas.
“There was no indication that any of the facilities were involved in the production of chemical warfare agents or toxic chemicals to be used as weapons,” the mission said.
In a briefing to the United Nations on March 10, UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu said that the OPCW had not received an explanation from the Syrian government authorities on a number of issues, including unreported types and quantities of a nerve agent found at a former chemical weapons production facility and the unauthorized movement and destruction of two cylinders related to the Douma attack.
“As has been repeatedly emphasized, due to identified gaps, inconsistencies, and discrepancies that remain unresolved […] at this stage, Syria’s declaration cannot be considered accurate and complete in accordance with the Chemical Weapons Convention,” Nakamitsu said.
At the briefing, Russia accused the OPCW of bias.
“The work of the OPCW has been politicized and its illegitimate Investigation and Identification Group repeatedly reaches deliberately biased conclusions,” said Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s ambassador to the UN.
In December 2018, Great Britain the guardian newspaper reported that the Russian government was supporting conspiracy theorists, anti-imperialist activists, and internet trolls to spread misinformation about the White Helmets.
According to the newspaper, Russia’s campaign against the White Helmets began after Moscow intervened militarily in 2015 to support the Assad government.
“By gaming social media algorithms with an avalanche of content, fueled by bots, puppet accounts and a network of agitators, propagandists are able to create a ‘manufactured consensus’ that gives legitimacy to fringe opinions,” The Guardian wrote.
Although he remains a powerful figure, Slutsky’s political star has been tarnished with allegations of corruption and sexual misconduct.
In 2018, four female journalists covering the Duma, which is the lower house of Russia’s legislative assembly, accused him of sexual harassment. However, the Duma’s ethics commission later said it found no evidence of “inappropriate behavior.”
TO Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) in 2021 found that Slutsky, who had declared an annual income of $77,000, was living a lavish lifestyle far beyond his means. (RFE/RL is one of several US-funded news networks including VOA).
Citing data collected from the social media accounts of Slutsky’s 11-year-old daughter and other sources, RFE/RL reported that she attends an $88,000-a-year private school in Switzerland and that the family spends time in a luxurious villa in a Turkish neighborhood. resource.
In 2018, Kremlin opposition figure Aleksey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation documented that Slutsky’s wife bought a Bentley Mulsanne, a car that sells for more than $300,000.
Reference-www.polygraph.info