Russia says OPCW voted down joint poisoning probe bid

Russia failed Wednesday in its bid to take part in an investigation by the global chemical watchdog into last month’s poisoning of a former Russian double agent and his daughter.

“Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to have two-thirds of the votes in support of that decision. A qualified majority was needed,” Russian ambassador Alexander Shulgin told reporters.

“The proposal was about a double investigation led by Russia and the UK. The general director of the OPCW should be the mediator,” he elaborated.

Britain and the United States were among those who voted against Moscow’s proposal along with others who “followed suit, tightened by the EU and NATO discipline”.

But Shulgin highlighted that Russia had won the support of Iran, as well as China and some African nations.

He stressed that out of the 41-member executive council of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) a total of 23 countries had either voted in favour of the joint Russian-Iranian motion, or had abstained.

The “masks have been thrown off,” he told a press conference at the Russian embassy in The Hague, after a day of tense talks.

Diplomatic sources told AFP that six countries voted in favour of the Russian draft motion, 15 were against with 17 abstentions, mainly countries from the Non-Aligned Movement(NAM).

The “UK and US have showed complete violation of international law,” Shulgin said, adding “they simply fear the truth”.

At the start of the OPCW meeting called at Russia’s request, London slammed as “perverse” Moscow’s proposal for a joint probe into the poisoning with a nerve agent of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia on March 4.

Britain is carrying out its own probe, with independent technical assistance from OPCW experts.