Russia to expel UK envoys over nerve toxin attack

ASTANA (Reuters) — Russia is set to expel British diplomats in retaliation to United Kingdom Prime Minister Theresa May’s decision to kick out 23 Russians as relations with London crashed to a post-Cold War low over an attack involving a military-grade nerve agent on English soil.

After the first known offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since World War II, Britain has pointed the finger at Russian President Vladimir Putin and on Thursday, May gave the 23 Russians who she said were spies working under diplomatic cover at the embassy in London a week to leave.

Moscow has denied any involvement in the attempted murder of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter. It has cast Britain as a post-colonial power unsettled by its impending exit from the European Union (EU), and even suggested that London fabricated the attack to whip up anti-Russian hysteria.

The diplomats are due to leave London on March 20, RIA news agency quoted Russia’s ambassador to Britain as saying.

Separately last Friday, the police in London launched a murder investigation into the death this week of a Russian associate of late tycoon Boris Berezovsky, but said nothing at this stage suggested a link to the Skripal case.

Asked by a Reuters reporter in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana if Moscow would expel British diplomats, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov smiled and said, “We will, of course.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated Moscow’s line that there was no “clear evidence” for any Russian involvement in the attack, RIA reported.

Britain, the United States, Germany and France jointly called on Russia last Thursday to explain the attack. US President Donald Trump said it looked as though the Russians were behind it.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said an EU summit next week would discuss the issue, in the first instance to seek clarity. Any boycott of the World Cup, which Russia hosts this summer, is not an immediate priority, she said.