US sanctions Russia over poisoning of former spy in Britain

WASHINGTON: New sanctions against Russia will be imposed later this month for illegally using a chemical weapon in an attempted assassination of a former spy and his daughter in Britain earlier this year, the United States has said.

Russia condemned the move as illegal, even as the rouble tumbled on Thursday to two-year lows and sparked a wider asset sell-off over fears that Moscow was locked in a spiral of neverending curbs by the West.

The Kremlin said the US move was at odds with the “constructive atmosphere” created at the summit of US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Helsinki.

The US state department on Wednesday said it had made a determination that Moscow had used the Novichok nerve agent against Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Britain, something Moscow denies.

It said Congress is being notified of the August 6 determination and that the sanctions would take effect on or around August 22, when the finding is to be published in the Federal Register.

The sanctions will include the presumed denial of export licenses for Russia to purchase many items with national security implications, according to a senior state department official who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to do so by name.

The US made a similar determination in February when it found that North Korea used a chemical weapon to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s half brother at the airport in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 2017.

Skripal and his daughter were poisoned by the Novichok military-grade nerve agent in the English town of Salisbury in March.

Both eventually recovered. Britain has accused Russia of being behind the attack.

Months later, two residents of a nearby town with no ties to Russia were also poisoned by the deadly toxin.

Police believe the couple accidentally found a bottle containing Novichok. One of them died.

The US had joined Britain in condemning Russia for the Skripal poisoning and joined with European nations in expelling Russian diplomats in response, but it had yet to make the formal determination that the Russian government had “used chemical or biological weapons in violation of international law or has used lethal chemical or biological weapons against its own nationals.”

British Prime Minister Theresa May welcomed the US decision.

Her Downing Street office issued a statement saying the move sends “an unequivocal message to Russia that its provocative, reckless behavior will not go unchallenged.”