In January 2020, State Duma deputy Alexei Zhuravlev said that one of the reasons for the weather anomaly in Russia could be Washington’s use of climate weapons. We tried to understand how real this is.

Zhuravlev’s statement concerned the unusually warm winter of 2019–2020. It was aired on the radio station “Moscow Speaks”. Here's what, in particular, said people's choice:

“Today America, which uses everything possible in advanced technologies, can have this happen. <…> I am sure that these are not random climate changes. We know that they were the first to test climate weapons in Vietnam. Therefore, of course, these developments are underway, although they are prohibited, they are definitely being developed. And they do it “as if we are conducting research,” that is, not as a weapon, but as research. Research is possible, but weapons are not. They do this research on purpose, but use it as a weapon.”

It should be noted that this was not Zhuravlev’s first revelation on this topic - back in August 2019, he shared a similar opinion on the “60 Minutes” program on the Rossiya TV channel. Then we were talking about the surprises of summer weather:

“I think they are testing climate weapons. There can’t be a summer like this, we all understand that it can’t happen. This means that there are fires here and rainfall in Moscow. Well, the Washington regional committee is working. I think this is serious and we need to treat it correctly.”

First, was the winter of 2019–2020 really abnormally warm? As experts say, this is true - both in relation to individual Moscow or St. Petersburg, and throughout Russia, where the temperature exceeded the average by 6–8 °C. However, it is impossible to talk about the country’s special path in this context - after all, the winter of 2019–2020 broke the European record, and in the USA and China it was among the three and four warmest winters, respectively. It is also true that the summer of 2019 established the opposite record — for example, in Moscow the temperature was 7–8 °C below normal.

However, experts have a rational explanation for all this. They thinkthat, firstly, the reason for the abnormally warm winter is the passage of all cyclones along northern trajectories, as a result of which the territory of Russia is constantly located in their warm sector. In addition, Atlantic heat enters the country. Secondly, the temperature on the planet is rising due to the strengthening of the greenhouse effect associated with an increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere. “What has been happening for ten years is not yet climate change,” speaks Chief Specialist of the Department of Earth Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences Nina Zaitseva.

As for climate weapons, this concept remains hypothetical today. The only recorded episode in which changes in weather conditions were carried out for hostile purposes is considered to be the American attack on the Ho Chi Minh Trail during the Vietnam War. Then the US military, using various chemicals, caused heavy rains over this object. Such actions were prohibited in 1977 by special convention. Nevertheless, the topic of climate weapons periodically emerges within the framework of various conspiracy theories, and very often this happens in Russia. In particular, another major surge in the camp of conspiracy theorists occurred after fires of 2010.

Leading Russian experts also shared their opinion on the likelihood of the Americans using climate weapons. “Generally speaking, this is not even funny anymore, sometimes the comments of officials make you want to cry,” Dmitry Stefanovich, an expert at the Russian International Affairs Council and co-founder of the Vatfor project, said in an interview with RBC. Scientific Director of the Hydrometeorological Center Roman Vilfand, in turn, saidthat such statements should be taken with irony. And the leading specialist at the Phobos weather center, Evgeny Tishkovets, recalled that in 2019, it was the United States that suffered the largest losses from weather disasters. “They had forest fires in California, in the US Midwest there was an unprecedented flood with losses of $12.5 billion - did the Pentagon also use this against itself? Of course not. This is all nonsense,” the expert said.

Thus, Alexey Zhuravlev’s statement about the use of climate weapons against Russia, although strictly formally not refuted (it is almost impossible to prove the absence of anything), is with a very high probability false.