United States Department of State spokesperson Heather Nauert said there is reason to believe Russia is helping Syria to "remove incriminating evidence" and delay access of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapon’s (OPCW) team to Douma. The team arrived in Syria but has not yet been able to inspect the site of the alleged chemical attack which happened on April 7.
"We have credible information that indicates that Russian officials are working with the Syrian regime to deny and to delay these inspectors from gaining access to Duma. We believe it is an effort to conduct their own staged investigations. Russian officials have worked with the Syrian regime, we believe, to sanitize the locations of those suspected attacks and remove incriminating evidence of chemical weapons use," Nauert said. "We have also watched as some people have seemingly been pressured by the government to change their stories about what actually occurred that night... so that it doesn't appear that Russia and Syria are responsible for those attacks."
