Britain to expel 23 Russian diplomats over spy poisoning
The UK announced the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats yesterday in response to the nerve agent attack on a Russian former double agent.
Prime Minister Theresa May said that Russia had responded with “sarcasm, contempt and defiance” after her demand for an explanation about the use of the military grade substance in Salisbury, a small city in southern England.
The order for the diplomats to leave the country within a week was the largest expulsion since 1985 when 31 were ordered out after the defection of double agent Oleg Gordievsky to the UK.
Analysts said the expulsions would represent about 40 per cent of Russian diplomatic strength in Britain.
The largest diplomatic titfor-tat was in 1971 when 105 diplomats from the former Soviet Union were expelled by the British government.
Four were expelled after Russian agents poisoned the former spy Alexander Litvinenko with radioactive Polonium-210 in London, leading to his death three weeks later in 2006.
“Through these expulsions we will fundamentally degrade Russian intelligence capability in the UK for years to come,” Mrs May told MPs. “And if they seek to rebuild it, we will prevent them from doing so.”
Mrs May also announced that high-level contacts between the two countries would be stopped, including a visit to the UK by Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov. She said that dignitaries and members of the royal family would not be attending the football World Cup in Russia this summer but did not mention a full boycott of the tournament.
She also stopped short of expelling Russia’s ambassador and did not directly mention RT, the Kremlin-backed television station, which operates in the UK. The network’s future will be reviewed separately by broadcast regulators.
Experts have identified the nerve agent used against Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, as Novichok, a military-grade material linked to Russia.
The pair were found unconscious on a bench in Salisbury on Sunday and remain critically ill in hospital. One of the first police officers on the scene is also seriously ill but has been speaking to his family.
Mrs May said that Russia had “demonstrated complete disdain” in its response to UK demands for information and had given no credible reason for how the country lost control of the nerve agent, which was developed during the Soviet era.
Mrs May welcomed support from allies including the US, Nato and the EU, and said Britain would be pushing for a “robust international response” at the UN Security Council.
Nato called on Russia earlier to give Britain “complete disclosure” of the Soviet-era nerve agent used in the attack.
Analysts said the attack was probably designed as a warning to other potential defectors and critics about the reach of Russia.
Russia rejected Mrs May’s ultimatum to respond to a claim of state involvement by midnight on Tuesday and said that there would be repercussions.