May: We’ve crippled Russia’s spy web
BRITAIN: Prime Minister Theresa May yesterday claimed that Russia’s Western spy network had been ‘‘dismantled’’ after 22 nations, including the United States, joined with Britain to expel more than 130 ‘‘diplomats’’.
She told Russian President Vladimir Putin the attempt to ‘‘intimidate’’ Britain with the Salisbury poisonings had ‘‘spectacularly backfired’’ as she hailed the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers in history.
May vowed not to allow Putin’s espionage machine to be rebuilt after the US and other Western allies announced the expulsions.
President Donald Trump ordered 60 suspected Russian spies to leave the US – including 12 from the United Nations in New York – while 16 EU countries and five other non-eu members also gave Russians notice to leave. At least two other EU members will follow suit today.
May said the unprecedented show of solidarity, which outstripped even Downing Street’s expectations after days of intense diplomacy, sent the ‘‘strongest signal’’ that Russia ‘‘cannot continue to flout international law and threaten our security’’.
The White House said Putin could no longer be in any doubt that ‘‘actions have consequences’’. A total of 114 Russian diplomats were expelled by Britain’s allies, adding to the 23 already sent home by the UK last week.
The response to the Salisbury attacks was described by experts as a ‘‘heavy blow’’ to Russian intelligence gathering.
Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council, said ‘‘additional measures’’ – including more expulsions by more countries – could not be excluded.
May said: ‘‘President Putin’s regime is carrying out acts of aggression against our shared values and interests within our continent and beyond. If the Kremlin’s goal is to divide and intimidate the Western alliance, then their efforts have spectacularly backfired.’’
May said police investigating the Salisbury attack had established that 130 people could potentially have been exposed to the Novichok nerve agent, which had been stockpiled by Russia after work on ‘‘delivering nerve agents, probably for assassination’’.
The mass expulsion was greeted with fury in Moscow, which said Britain’s allies had ‘‘blindly’’ followed May’s lead, resulting in ‘‘escalating the confrontation’’.
Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, hinted that the Kremlin would respond with tit-for-tat expulsions, saying Russia would proceed from the ‘‘principle of reciprocity’’.
A Kremlin spokesman said she had a surprise for British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who compared Russia’s hosting of the 2018 World Cup to the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany. Maria Zakharova said Johnson ‘‘doesn’t know any history’’ and referred to British athletes joining in with Nazi salutes at the Games while the Soviet Union stayed away.
Trump’s tough action, which also included the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle because of its proximity to a Boeing facility and a submarine base, was particularly welcomed by the Foreign Office after Trump insisted on congratulating Putin on his recent election win, against explicit advice from his team.
Germany, France and Poland will each expel four Russians, with others deported from Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Latvia, Romania, Croatia, Hungary and Estonia. Canada, Norway, Macedonia, Ukraine, Sweden, Finland and Albania will also expel suspected spies, with Belgium and Ireland confirming they will announce expulsions today.
The Czech ambassador to the US, Hynek Kmonicek, said Russia clearly saw Britain as a security weak link because while Russian defectors typically went to the UK, the US or Israel, ‘‘they only die in the UK’’. Britain had also been hoping Nato would consider expelling Russian officials, but the plans hit a roadblock when Belgium, which only has a handful of diplomats in Moscow, vetoed the move.
Professor Anthony Glees, the director of security and intelligence studies at Buckingham University, said: ‘‘It is a heavy blow to the Russia intelligence-gathering. They are more on their own than they have ever been.’’
- Telegraph Group