• ksynwa@lemmy.ml
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    3 years ago

    Poisoning dissidents is not biological or chemical warfare. For context, US dropped disease ridden insects and fowl feathers during their war on Korea. Am example of chemical warfare is their use of Agent Orange in Vietnam to hurt their agriculture which has ended up poisoning their water supply to this day.

    No one is asking you to trust Russia. But Russia doesn’t have 300+ labs over the world inventing novel ways to kill for them.

    • Julianus@lemmy.ml
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      3 years ago

      I’m uneasy on American expenditures on biological weapons, to be sure. Even if they’re researching how to counter them, the doomsday scenario is the accidental release of an airborne pathogen. The risk has never made sense to me.

      But two points:

      1. The Russians and Assad did use chemical weapons against civilians in Syria. Done simply to mop up rebel cities at the cheapest cost.
      2. Putin poisoned his targets in the most dramatic ways possible: with radioactive isotopes and nerve agents that only governments can produce. He killed them with weapons of mass destruction just to make a point. He went to far to do it on foreign soil!
        • Julianus@lemmy.ml
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          3 years ago

          The poisoning of dissidents was done with biological and nuclear weapons to underscore the point that Putin has them and is willing to use them flagrantly.

          Also that Russia has recently used chemical weapons against civilians. If China was actually worried about this subject (and not deflecting from Covid scrutiny), they’d be watching Russia’s actions in Ukraine very closely. Attacking nuclear reactors and now talking up chemical weapons indicates Russia is aiming for a false flag pretext where they blame Ukraine for Russia’s misdeeds. Like accusing Ukraine of shelling their own refuges, when artillery is Russia’s core strength.