Slutsky denies Russia destroyed evidence of chemical attack in Syria
MOSCOW. April 20 (Interfax) - State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Leonid Slutsky has denied the U.S. Department of State's allegations that evidence of the chemical attack in Syria's Douma was destroyed.
"Washington is again using its favorite trick and shifting the blame," Slutsky told reporters on Friday.
It was the United States, acting in collaboration with the United Kingdom and France, that hindered the OPCW fact-finding mission with their April 14 missile strikes, Slutsky said. "It was nothing but aggression against a sovereign country launched in disregard of international law. Its purpose was to cover tracks of another staged chemical incident in Syria," he said.
"Orchestrated investigations are not Russia's method. These are the instruments used by the incumbent Western establishment, which fabricates accusations against us, takes illegal actions to expel our diplomats, as happened in the Skripal case, and destroys evidence," Slutsky said.