Putin's Secret Chemical War

By Irina Severin | UAObserver | 28 April 2014

There is a lot of fuss in the media about the new military prowess of Russia and the Russian “polite people”, who succeeded in a silent and bloodless occupation of the Crimea.  There are a lot of explanations for how Putin managed to do this – from Russian TV propaganda - Russia's psychological weapon, inducing psychoses in the local population, Putin's "dark art" of bribing local authorities, to cutting communications with Kyiv, and the psychological unpreparedness of the Ukrainian military to kill the Russians.  All of them make sense. But there is one more of Putin's "secret weapons" that went unnoticed.

Epic Russian video report  (produced to celebrate Russia's new military prowess)  demonstrates there is a reason to consider that the Russian special forces have used non-lethal chemical weapons while seizing administrative buildings and Ukrainian military bases,  banned in warfare under an international treaty- Chemical Weapons Convention.  

The video shows that while capturing Ukrainian soldiers in their military barracks, some of the Russian gunmen were wearing respirators. What for?  And why was the Ukrainian military so passive and easy to manage? The video also shows that, approaching the building, the Russian gunmen brought inside some heavy equipment. What kind of equipment could this be?

As this happened during the first operation, it explains a psychological shock caused by this magical seizure, affecting both the Ukrainian military and the Ukrainian authorities, which could explain their passivity.  Also, this should shape the public opinion from the very beginning of the Russian intervention in Ukraine, not opposing the invasion of Crimea. This supported Russia's propagandist mantra about "righting a historical wrong," meant to stifle the criticism of the 

Another video from teh surveillance cameras at the Council of Ministers building shows that, before the building was captured, the chemical substance was injected inside. The people in the video are absolutely passive without any sign of either shock or fear - just apathy.



In such a case, is this a sign of prowess or just a use of forbidden chemical weapons for stealthily incapacitating security officers and military personnel from performing their duties?

Documented use of non-lethal chemical weapons

Putin has a record of the use of chemical weapons during the Moscow theater hostage crisis, when 50 Chechens seized the crowded Dubrovka Theater on 28 October 2002, and a potent narcotic (a derivative of the opiate anesthetic fentanyl) was introduced into the ventilation system before Russian special forces troops stormed the theater.  It was designed as a non-lethal chemical attack, but when the troops burst into the main hall, they found the hostages and hostage-takers in a coma. As a result, 25 hostages died of overdose; the rest--more than 600--survived.

Last year, Russia was accused of supporting its Syrian ally, Bashar Assad, using chemical weapons for the massive killing of his own people. To prevent damage to his reputation, Putin managed to convince Assad to scrap the chemical weapons. This move rescued Assad from the US attack, promised by Obama for the chemical weapons use as a “red line” in his Syria politics, and elevated Putin's reputation. Later, for this move, Putin was nominated (or rather orchestrated this nomination) for the Nobel Prize.

But lately, the theme of chemical weapons use in Syria has arisen again. This time, this was about non-lethal chemical weapons:

At the beginning of April, an Israeli security source confirmed that the Assad regime had used a non-lethal chemical weapon at the end of March on the outskirts of Damascus. The source said he could confirm claims made by Syrian rebels and doctors last month that a substance had been used on rebel fighters in Harasta, an outlying region of the Syrian capital, adding that the chemical “neutralizes [threats] but does not kill.” 

Such synchronization of the chemical weapons use by Syria and Russia is quite remarkable. 

Putin's Big Secret

However, there is another remarkable coincidence - on the same day, Russia suddenly banned military and police from traveling abroad. What is the secret that Putin wants to hide?

The ban includes employees who have access to state secrets - parts of the military and the police, the Federal Drug Control Agency, the Federal Migration Service, the Federal Penalty Service, and certain employees of the Foreign Ministry. According to estimates, there are around 250,000 people.

The goal of the measure, according to LifeNews.ru, is to prevent leaks of secret information to foreign intelligence agencies that could use it to penetrate Russia.
Exceptions would be made in “exceptional circumstances” and for “good reason”. The duration of the ban remains unclear and, for the time being, is indefinite.

This means that Putin takes extraordinary measures to keep the use of chemical weapons a secret, especially after Putin's unexpected revelation at his press-conference at 17th of April that the silent “polite people” who seized Crimea without a shot were in fact Russian special forces.  

The same chemical weapons are used in the East of Ukraine – in Donetsk and other places, where the same Russian spetznaz has seized and continues to seize administrative buildings in the same “silent and polite” way.

“Doping of  Hitler” for  Russian terrorists

This is not the only use of psycho-chemicals in Putin's “hybrid warfare” against Ukraine. There is information that inside the Donetsk state administration building, there is a laboratory, where a special substance, pervitin, is produced every day and night. Later, it is served to the rebels, many of whom are criminals and drug addicts. This substance is known as a “power drug”, which “reduces fatigue, heightens aggression, and diminishes human warmth and empathy”.

  As Pervitin was used by Nazi troops to make soldiers fight longer and more fiercely, it is styled the “doping of Hitler”.  A pharmacologist from the German Doctors' Association explains :

"The blitzkrieg was fueled by Pervitin. The idea was to turn ordinary soldiers, sailors, and airmen into automatons capable of superhuman performance."

It seems Putin decided to actualize Hitler's secret weapon. It is not surprising that Hodorkovsky, visiting Ukraine recently, was not allowed to enter the Donetsk state administration building.  As one of the higher-ups of the rebels informed him: “There are patriots there and they are attuned for everything”.

In February, there was information about the Russian spetsnaz who lived in a resort near Kyiv during the Maidan: they were getting a special tea from their higher-ups, not from the resort, as reported by those who worked there. Some observers consider that this was the same spetznaz who killed Maidan activists later in February.  One of the captured in Donetsk separatists recognized that he was working in Kyiv during the deadly shootings of Maidan.

"Diplomatic dopings" and chemical incapacitants

Every result achieved in a war should be consolidated in diplomatic agreements. This is just another battlefield in Putin's hybrid war. One could notice that Sergey Lavrov does whatever he can to prolong the talks.  And it seems at the end of the talks he is not exhausted like other participants, but the opposite – he looks even more refreshed than at the beginning. 

Journalists noticed that Lavrov often leaves the negotiation room for a smoke. - as often as some journalists suggested that it is damaging for the superpower status, for wh­  ich Russia aspires. This could be just a sign of extra-agitation. Otherwise, nobody knows what Lavrov smokes. It is known that the result: a super diplomat always obtains what he wants, leaving the opponents confused.

It is not excluded that Lavrov also uses Pervitin. Not only German soldiers but Hitler and all the highest-ranking military officers in the Third Reich used Pervitin to increase resilience and mental abilities.  It seems that Moscow pays close attention to this aspect, developing new technologies to gain an advantage at different stages and levels of warfare, which Russia leads against the West.  

The wearing-out strategy itself is enough to successfully take advantage of exhausted partners during the talks. But after the latest diplomatic victories, it seems that Lavrov could use not only a doping drug for himself, but a kind of sedative for his partners, which should make them more prone to manipulation. Due to new technologies, just a capsule in his pocket is enough to achieve this result. The challenge here is not to overdo the final results of the talks to remain credible.

The practice shows that Putin himself used special effects during negotiations and has no psychological barriers to such approaches. Moreover, this is part of his basic skills as a former KGB agent.  And Putin doesn't even try to downplay his FSB affiliation. 

As psycho-chemicals break down resistance and make people vulnerable to manipulation, they can be used against the border patrols to access any administrative building or even the country if special security measures are not taken. And this is not only about Ukraine. Ukraine is just first in line. 

This hybrid war has presented entirely new challenges that the West should acknowledge and face. The new chemical weapons also demonstrate how far Putin is prepared to go to achieve his goals.