Spanish police intercept chemical weapons precursors bound for Russia

Spain’s authorities intercepted a shipment of 13 tonnes of chemicals bound for Russia that included “possible precursors for chemical weapons or nerve agents,” National Police said.

According to a statement from the force, the materials were seized in a shipping container at the port of Barcelona, while four people were arrested in Barcelona and Girona on suspicion of “leading a commercial network from Spain created to evade the sanctions imposed on Russia due to the war in Ukraine”.

The police say the investigation that led to the operation began in 2022.

“A company, managed by citizens of Russian origin, was detected that had developed a system of commercial, logistical and economic triangulation aimed at the illegal supply of chemical products to Russia,” National Police explained.

“In the course of the investigation, the export of internationally sanctioned chemical products, some of them possible precursors for chemical weapons or nerve agents, was found to have been carried out in the past using this corporate network.”

“The Spanish company had a subsidiary in Moscow which was the ultimate recipient of the chemicals, although this final destination was disguised through a succession of front companies in countries such as Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. These front companies were not the recipients of the goods, which were diverted by land to the Russian Federation.”

International sanctions designed to penalise Russia and undermine its war effort in Ukraine have proven less effective than hoped because of the Kremlin’s innovative sanctions-busting methods, which often involve the transfer of supplies and funds via companies and banks in central Asian post-Soviet states.

While some of these countries have taken measures to combat the Kremlin’s use of them as pipelines for its war economy, they are dependent enough on their trade links with Russia that they cannot afford to isolate themselves completely.

The return of chemical warfare

Both Russia and Ukraine are signatories to the Chemical Weapons Convention, the international accord that has helped achieve the official destruction of the world’s stockpiles of declared chemical weapons.

However, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has been alerted by both Russia and Ukraine to the alleged uses of chemical weapons since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The US says that it has evidence of Russia deploying chemical weapons on the battlefield, though the Kremlin has denied it.

The UK also recently sanctioned specific Russian military figures associated with such actions, which are said to have involved both riot control agents — the use of which in war is illegal — and the First World War-era chemical weapon chloropicrin.

“We will continue to monitor the situation and maintain our readiness to deploy. We remain in contact with concerned States Parties and invite those that may have substantiated information to share it with the Secretariat,” the OCPW said in a statement earlier this year.

“In the meantime, the OPCW will continue to provide support to Ukraine, upon its request, in the field of assistance and protection against chemical weapons under Article X of the Convention.”

Russia has long been an ally of the al-Assad regime in Syria, which has notoriously used chemical weapons, including sarin, against its own citizens during its ongoing war — this despite an internationally brokered effort to destroy its stockpile.

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The Russian intelligence services have also used chemical weapons in overseas assassination attempts, notably in the case of Sergei Skripal, who was attacked alongside his daughter in the British city of Salisbury with the nerve agent Novichok. Two unconnected civilians died after coming into contact with the substance by accident.