May ‘poisoning Russian ties’

ASTANA/ LONDON: Russia is set to expel British diplomats in retaliation for Prime Minister Theresa May’s decision to kick out 23 Russians as relations with London crash to a post-Cold War low due to an attack with military-grade nerve agent on English soil.

After the first known offensive use of such a weapon in Europe since World War II, May blamed Moscow and gave 23 Russians who she said were spies working under diplomatic cover at the London embassy a week to leave.

Russia has denied any involvement, cast Britain as a post-colonial power unsettled by Brexit, and even suggested London had fabricated the attack in an attempt to whip up anti-Russian hysteria.

Asked if Russia planned to expel British diplomats from Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov smiled and said: “We will, of course.”

Britain, the United States, Germany, France and New Zealand have called on Russia to explain the attack.

Russia has refused Britain’s demands to explain how Novichok, a nerve agent developed by the Soviet military, was used to strike down Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, in the southern English city of Salisbury.

Skripal, a former colonel in the GRU who betrayed dozens of Russian agents to British intelligence, and his daughter have been critically ill since March 4, when they were found unconscious on a bench.

A British policeman who was also poisoned when he went to help them is in a serious but stable condition.

President Vladimir Putin, a former KGB spy who is poised to win a fourth term in an election on Sunday, has so far only said publicly that Britain should get to the bottom of what has happened. – Reuters

PICTURE: AP/AFRICAN NEWS AGENCY (ANA) Russian Federal Security Service Director Alexander Bortnikov speaks to Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at a security council meeting in the Kremlin in Moscow on Thursday.