On July, 12, the briefing "Who is using chemical weapons in Syria?" took place in the Hague.

Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the Netherlands Alexander Shulgin, Ambassador of Syria to the Netherlands Bassam Sabbagh, expert of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation Sergey Kikot, and President of the Foundation for the study of democracy Maxim Grigoriev expressed their views regarding the false flag chemical attack in Syrian Douma on April 7, 2018.

Maxim Grigoriev has recently come from Syria. The independent expert interviewed witnesses of the so-called chemical attack who supported the fact that the attack was staged by the members of the White Helmets.

Read full presentation of Maxim Grigoriev:

Speech of Maxim Grigoriev, President of the Foundation for the Study of Democracy at the Briefing “Who is Using Chemical Weapons in Syria?”

The Hague, July 12, 2019

The Foundation for the Study of Democracy carried out an independent assessment of the alleged use of toxic chemicals as a weapon in Douma, Syrian Arab Republic, on the seventh of April, twenty eighteen.

On the eleventh of March, twenty nineteen, I participated in the briefing on the premises of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons where we provided convincing proof that the White Helmets had routinely staged chemical attacks. The evidence obtained was based on more than one hundred interviews we conducted last year, including:

- forty members of the White Helmets who provided a detailed description of the methods commonly used by the organization to fake scenes;

- more than twenty people who witnessed the White Helmets staging the chemical attacks;

- fifteen witnesses of the fake attack at the Douma hospital.

In the Report of the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission regarding the Incident of Alleged Use of Toxic Chemicals as a Weapon in Douma the hospital is referred to as Location 1.

Two weeks ago we interviewed in detail ten residents of the house in Douma, where the bodies of the people featured in the videos on the Internet were. As you know, the OPCW report refers to this place as Location 2, "Cylinder on the Roof" in Douma.

We also carried out, with the help of the volunteers, a sociological survey of three hundred residents of the houses within a kilometer of Location 2.

Last year, we went to the Hospital that was filmed by the "White Helmets" in a video where they accused the Syrian authorities of a chemical attack. The hospital personnel and Syrian civilians completely refuted this staged scene. Here are the words of only one of the many witnesses we interviewed. Doctor Hassan from the Douma Hospital said the following (and I quote): " … the medical examination revealed no signs of chemical poisoning. We provided them elementary medical aid and let go home" (end of quote).

Nowadays, the White Helmets’ falsification on Location 1 is widely known.

The "White Helmets" posted this video from a hospital on its Twitter account in April twenty eighteen with a caption: "Another Video showing cases of suffocation among civilians … following the chemical attack against the civilians in Douma city."

On the thirteenth of February the BBC Syria producer Riam Dalati tweeted: "After almost months of investigations, I can prove without a doubt that the Douma Hospital scene was staged".

The facts presented in our report titled "The White Helmets: Fact-Checking by eyewitnesses and Former volunteers" confirm that fake chemical attacks were a routine practice of the White Helmets. The evidence provided below unequivocally proves that the attacks in Douma on the seventh of April, twenty eighteen, in Location 1 and Location 2 were both staged.

Now, I will cite some key statements of only a few of the witnesses we interviewed.

The first witness is Seham Hayti, a forty four year old woman permanently living in the house referred to in the OPCW report as Location 2, "Cylinder on the roof" where the bodies were discovered. As you can easily see on the photographs, we interviewed her at the exact same spot where the yellow cylinder was found. That is the cylinder that was presented in the videos on the Internet and later, in the OPCW report as the cause of death.

You can see our questions and her answers on the screen. I will read them.

Question: How long have you been living in this house?

Answer: Five years.

Question: Have you been spending every night in your apartment with your family?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Who do you live with? Your husband and children? How old are your children?

Answer: Yes. Five children. Nineteen, Eighteen, Twelve, Twenty one and Seven years old.

Question: Have they also been spending the nights here without leaving anywhere?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Were you at home on the seventh of April last year as well?

Answer: Yes. We were here.

Question: Some videos have appeared on the Internet featuring dead bodies in this house. Allegedly, those people had been killed by the chlorine cylinder. If this was the case, would it have killed all your family as well?

Answer: Yes.

Question: And what happened to you?

Answer: Well, nothing.

Question: Did you or any of your children feel sick?

Answer: Nothing happened.

Question: I will show you another video. Watch it carefully. Is this your staircase?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Do you recognize any of these people? Had they ever lived here?

Answer: I don’t know any of them. They had been brought here from the medical center. They had brought the bodies here and staged the whole thing.

These answers are so eloquent that there is no need to comment.

The next witness we interviewed is Imam Karim, twenty years old. She has also been permanently living in the house including on the seventh of April last year where the bodies were discovered.

I will cite the most indicative questions and answers from our interview.

Question: How long have you been living in this house?

Answer: More than five years.

Question: Did you and your parents spend every night in this house?

Answer: Yes.

Question: How old are your parents? Do they leave the house often?

Answer: My father is sixty five years old, and my mother is sixty years old. They do not leave the house.

Question: In other words, they spent most of the time in April last year in this house?

Answer: Yes.

Question: This is the photo from the OPCW report. This chlorine cylinder is lying right here, on this floor …

… On the Internet, it was stated that chlorine killed the people who stayed in this house. But if your parents and you stayed in this house for the whole last year and your parents remained indoors, it means they should have died as well if chlorine had actually been there.

Answer: We stayed here every day. My father and mother. We did not feel anything. Should there be anything, they would have fallen sick.

Question: Did your parents complain of anything? Of chlorine? Of anything unusual?

Answer: No, they did not complain of anything.

Question: I will show you a video footage, please, take a close look at it and say if you know any of these people. Do you recognize anyone?

Answer: No.

Question: So these people never lived in this house?

Answer: No.

I would like to note that any journalist could do the same and get the same answers.

The OPCW team should have interviewed them as well but for some unknown reason it either did not do it or concealed these data.

Next witness is Mahmud Mehbal. He has also permanently resided in the house including on the day of the alleged chemical attack last year where the bodies were found.

We will once again quote the most important questions and answers.

Question: How long have you lived in this house?

Answer: For five years.

Question: Have you been here every day? Including last year and on the seventh of April last year?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Who do you live with?

Answer: With my wife and four children.

Question: Last year, a video footage showing the bodies of dead people appeared on the Internet, it stated that this house had faced a chemical attack. How can you explain that people’s bodies were in the house and you did not experience any damage to your health?

Answer: It never happened at all.

Question: Are you absolutely sure that in reality there was no attack?

Answer: No, there was not.

Question: Did you feel any damage to your health? Either you or your wife, or your children who stayed here all the time?

Answer: No.

Next witness is Nada Ajar, a student. For three years including on the day of the alleged chemical attack she resided in the house.

We will once again quote the most important questions and answers.

Question: Please, have a look at these pictures and a video footage. This video footage has appeared on the Internet, it was made in this house, in particular in this apartment. The video footage states these people died here of a chemical attack. Please, have a look and say if you know anyone of them.

Answer: No.

Question: Please, take a look at them once again, do you recognize any of these people?

Answer: No, I do not recognize anyone.

On the second of July, twenty nineteen on our request volunteers conducted an sociological survey among three hundred residents of the houses within one kilometer from the house where the bodies were found - Location 2.

Task: to identify the dead bodies on the video footage.

Method: the respondents were asked whether they recognize anyone in the pictures and on the video footage.

The results of the poll: no one of the 300 residents of the area interviewed recognized any of the bodies on the video footage mentioned in the OPCW report.

I would like to once again underline:

no one of the 300 residents of the area interviewed recognized any of the bodies on the video footage mentioned in the OPCW report.

The conclusions of the interviews and sociological survey of three hundred residents:

First. Witnesses permanently residing in the house who stayed there during the day and night of the alleged use of toxic chemicals as a weapon on the seventh of April last year were not affected.

Second. According to the evidence given by the witnesses who resided in the house, their children and elderly parents who permanently stayed in the house during the day and night of the alleged use of toxic chemicals as a weapon on the seventh of April last year were not affected either.

Third. Among the bodies shown on the video footage there are no residents of the house which allegedly faced a chemical attack. No residents of the local neighborhood either.

These data unequivocally prove that the incident on the seventh of April last year was completely fake, as well as that the dead bodies belonged neither to people from the house nor even to people from the neighborhood, but were brought from elsewhere for staging.

Me and hopefully you, may ask ourselves: where were the bodies seen on Internet videos cited in the OPCW Report taken from?

We got the answer to this question from our interviews.

The following witness, Muhamed Shkhader Abdulkader, forty years old, driver. He resides in an apartment which is just on the left from Location 2.

Let us quote the most important questions and answers.

Question: There is a video recording published in the Internet featuring the bodies of those who died in this house in April last year. What happened back then?

Answer: The fighters shot at the windows … The fighters brought dead bodies by cars. Two columns, many cars.

Question: Look at the photos of the dead people carefully. Do you know any of them?

Answer: I can recognize no one. I know all the locals. We all live here and we know each other well. I have been residing here since my childhood. But these people, I don't know them … In this street I saw ten dead bodies unfamiliar to me. The White Helmets were filming.

These answers are also so eloquent that there is no need commenting them.

The next witness interviewed by us is Qamal Ali Fustuki, twenty four year old, baker.

Question: What happened to your brother?

Answer: My brother was killed in an artillery shelling. They brought his body from the hospital here, took a picture of it and told he had died in a chemical attack … They brought his body here, with no traces of the use of chemical weapons.

Question: Please show where your brother's body lay.

Answer: Just over there.

Question: What happened next to your brother's body?

Answer: We approached the fighters for his body, but they refused to deliver it to us, they buried it themselves. All the bodies were taken and buried. I don't know where.

The meaning of these answers is obvious.

The next witness interviewed by us is Faez Omar Fattum, forty five years old, butcher.

He also resides in an apartment which is just on the left from Location 2, where dead bodies were found.

You can see questions and the most important answers on the screen.

Question:For how long have you been living in this house?

Answer: I have been living here for the whole of my life. We have never left Douma.

Question: There is a video recording published on the Internet featuring the bodies of those who died in this house in April last year. Please tell, what happened those days?

Answer: We resided on the second floor. We were attacked by fighters. With their faces covered, they shot in the air. We were forced to go outside… There were the White Helmets, too. The fighters brought dead bodies by cars. We saw the dead bodies.

Question: Where did these bodies come from?

Answer: The fighters brought the dead bodies from prison Al Thoba.

These answers are also so eloquent that there is no need commenting them.

I would like to remind you once again that any journalist, not even mentioning the OPCW fact-finding mission, could easily find and interview these people.

Those represented above, as well as a whole range of other witnesses of the falsification narrate how it all happened:

The fighters who came with the White Helmets, brought dead bodies, intimidated locals, shot at windows, forcing some people leave their home and isolating the rest in their apartments. Then, they filmed the setting and brought the bodies outside.

One body left by the fighters outside was identified by a witness. It belonged to his brother who had earlier been killed in an artillery shelling and taken by fighters from hospital. The remaining bodies, as the witnesses of forgery suppose, were brought from prison Al Thoba where the people captured by fighters were kept, including women and children.

Taking into account that other bodies had no injuries, the witnesses are pretty sure that the people featured in the video recordings were killed for the sake of organizing the falsification on the seventh of April, two thousand eighteen, in Douma.

We have provided you with only part of the evidence we have collected, but on the basis of the undeniable evidence we have provided today, it can clearly be said that on the seventh of April, two thousand and eighteenth, there was a falsification of the incident involving the use of toxic chemicals as a weapon in Douma.

Thank you for your attention.