I wouldn’t trust anything put out by Russian intelligence. Syria had its own WMD program, they had their own chemical weapons. Saddam and Assad may have been on relatively friendly terms but the fact is they were both war lords in a region dominated by strong man dictators. I don’t see Saddam willingly giving up his power (weapons are power, especially in the middle east) to a potential rival like Assad.
Well, believe or not what you will, you’re certainly entitled to. But when every intelligence service including Mossad and MI6 were all stating at the time that Saddam had them then it’s not just the CIA making things up. Personally, I tend to discount anything that comes out of the US news media, basically the propaganda ministry of the Democratic Party, more than I do the CIA or my memory of what stories were floating about and then somehow disappeared back then. Just my opinion.