The United States accused Russia on Monday of blocking international inspectors from reaching the Syrian city of Douma and said Russians or Syrians might have tampered with evidence on the ground. Moscow denied the charge and blamed delays on retaliatory US-led missile strikes on Syria.

“In both situations [US-led airstrikes against Syria and Russian double-agent case], from the beginning, it was 'highly likely' to happen, and after this, it was some kind of punishment. It’s very important (to note that) at the beginning there was no evidence and no investigation,” said Sergey Sanakoev, president and CEO of the Russian-Chinese Analytical Center. 

“They [Westerners] already said who is at fault for both situations: Russia. Now Russia should be punished. This is the logic of these people. This is very strange.” 

Sanakoev's comments came after the US, Britain and France launched airstrikes on Syria in response to a suspected poison gas attack that killed dozens of people in the Syrian town of Douma. The attacks were launched before experts from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) were able to enter Douma and begin their fact-finding mission, which means gathering information from all available sources to establish whether chemical weapons were used.

“The fact that they had to strike Syria before the OPCW started to work tells you that they really were not very sure if anybody would find any evidence. They wanted to strike basically whether there was a chemical attack or no chemical attack,” said Ammar Waqqaf, founder and director of Gnosos, an organization that describes itself as expressing stakeholder opinion in Syria and the Middle East.

“This was about punishment of Syria and Russia, telling them that they can do these things and upset the applecart because they can see the Syria government is spreading more of its influence over its territory and Russia is spreading more influence in the entire Middle East and they are losing. So they have to react,” said Waqqaf.

According to the Syrian state-run SANA news agency on Tuesday, chemical weapons inspectors have entered Douma, while Reuters reported inspectors would probably not go into Douma on Wednesday, marking a further delay in investigating a suspected poison gas attack there.

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