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The US has conducted a training exercise with its international counterparts aimed at helping actors detect and respond to the use of weapons of mass destruction as a tool for assassinations.
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US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo has revealed that a virtual training exercise involving the US and its global partners has taken place to help first responders, scientists, and security officials detect and respond to the suspected use of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) to execute an assassination.
The virtual training exercise was designed foster collaboration between the US and its allies to prevent, deter, and capture perpetrators of WMD attacks.
According to Secretary Pompeo, this was the first in a series of bilateral and multilateral exercises sponsored by the US to help address the threat.
Secretary Pompeo made specific reference to previous cases in which Russia has been suspected of using WMDs for political assassinations, including the state’s suspected assassinations of former intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and former Russian opposition leader Aleksey Navalny.
“Russia has a particularly notorious history of using WMD to target adversaries for assassination. This includes attempts to assassinate opposition politicians in Russia, dissidents and defectors abroad, and even citizens of other countries whose actions Russia disagrees with,” he said.
“The assassination attempt against Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, UK, in 2018 was particularly notable, because it involved the first known use of a Novichok nerve agent that the Soviet Union developed in secret. And the Skripal incident is not unique.
“Just last month, according to chemical analysis by Germany, France, and Sweden, which was confirmed by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, a Novichok agent was also used in the assassination attempt of Russian opposition leader Aleksey Navalny.”
Secretary Pompeo stressed that addressing such threats is a “significant international security priority”.
“The United States is committed to helping our partners around the world counter Russian malign activities, and looks forward to continuing to work with them to help recognise, attribute, and respond effectively to incidents where use of WMD as a tool of assassination is suspected,” he concluded.
[Related: Australia, US discuss ‘malign activity’ in Indo-Pacific]
