Russian President Vladimir Putin believes that the incident with the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian province of Idlib may have several versions, two of which he considers the main ones.
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“The first is that Syrian aviation ended up in a clandestine workshop for the production of chemical warfare agents. And this is quite possible, since militants have repeatedly used them in Iraq. This means they have them, and if they have them there, then why can’t they have them in Syria? This is one gang. This is the first version,” Putin said in an interview with the Mir TV channel, the text of which is published on the Kremlin’s official website.
He also did not rule out that the attack in Idlib could have been a provocation.
“The second version is simply a production, that is, a provocation. This was deliberately done in order to inflate the hype and create the preconditions, a pretext for additional pressure on the legitimate Syrian authorities. That's all. And this is subject to verification. Without verification, we do not consider it possible to take any steps directed against the official Syrian authorities,” the Russian President emphasized.
He recalled that in 2013, all chemical weapons were confiscated from Assad.
“If any doubts arise, this check can be carried out. This is not difficult to do with the help of modern technology. If one of the official authorities used it, then the so-called “tails”, the remains of powder on the equipment, on the territory, cannot but remain. Well, what’s easier is to come to the same airfield on which the attacks were carried out and supposedly from which the planes with chemical weapons took off, and check everything there,” the head of Russia noted.
He also proposed sending UN observers directly to Idlib if, as the West claims, there are “civilians” there.