Program to Build Partner Capabilities to Address Russian Malign Influence

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The Russian Federation has a well-documented history of using chemical and radiological agents to target adversaries. This includes attempts to assassinate opposition politicians in Russia, dissidents and defectors abroad, and even citizens of other countries whose actions Russia disagrees with. The entire world witnessed the images of the Russian Federation’s attempts at assassinating Sergei Skripal and Aleksey Navalny using chemical weapons. The assassination attempt against Skripal in Salisbury, U.K. in 2018 was particularly notable because it involved the first known use of a Novichok nerve agent, developed by the Soviet Union. In fact, a 2020 chemical analysis by Germany, France, and Sweden, and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, confirmed that Russia had specifically used a Novichok agent again in the assassination attempt of Aleksey Navalny. Russia’s brazen use of these deadly agents to target adversaries is a notable feature of Russian statecraft that spans across multiple countries.

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