Russia said on Monday it would be "political suicide" for the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad if it used chemical weapons against the armed opposition

Russia said on Monday it would be "political suicide" for the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad if it used chemical weapons against the armed opposition.
  
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview released by the English-language state television channel RT that Assad had given Moscow repeated assurances he had no plans to order such an attack.
  
"I do not believe Syria would use chemical weapons," Lavrov said in comments translated by the channel into English. "It would be a political suicide for the government if it does."
  
Lavrov said Moscow checks on every rumor about the movement of Syrian chemical weapons with Damascus in order to make sure there was no danger of their possible use. "Every time we hear rumors, or pieces of information come to surface that the Syrians are doing something with the chemical weapons we double-check, we triple-check, we go directly to the government and all the time we get very firm assurances  that this is not going to be used under any circumstances," Lavrov said.