COULD NOVICHOK PLUNGE WORLD INTO CONFLICT?
As Trump and the West vow revenge on Putin — who’s mobilising 300,000 troops...
THE West vowed revenge on Russia last night for the ‘bone-chilling’ nerve agent attack on Salisbury.
In an extraordinary joint statement, Donald Trump, Angela Merkel, Emmanuel Macron and Justin Trudeau joined Theresa May in vowing to disrupt the Kremlin’s spy network and ‘defend ourselves from all forms of malign state activity directed against us’.
It came as British defence sources highlighted an alarming build up of Russian forces – and warned that any ‘miscalculation’ could see the new Cold War turn into open conflict.
One senior figure warned that a massive Russian military exercise next week involving more than 300,000 troops could ‘clearly be regarded as a threat to Western democracy’.
In dramatic scenes in New York, Britain and the United States clashed with Russia over the Salisbury poisoning during an emergency session of the UN Security Council.
Nikki Haley, US ambassador to the UN, said the American administration would help the UK bring the Russians suspected of carrying out the attack – named as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov – to justice.
She said ‘no-one could have any doubt’ about Russia’s culpability for the attack, adding: ‘Every one of us around the world should be chilled to the bone by the findings of this investigation.
‘We must now help our British friends find these two suspects and bring them to justice in the UK.’ Russia’s ambassador Vasily Nebenzya launched a rambling attack on Mrs May, accusing her of publishing an ‘unfounded and mendacious cocktail’ of lies designed to ‘unleash disgusting anti-Russia hysteria’.
Mr Nebenzya said Russian requests to take part in the inquiry had been rejected – prompting the UK’s ambassador Karen Pierce to warn: ‘You don’t recruit an arsonist to put out a fire. You especially don’t do that when the fire is one they caused.’ The clashes came as: ■GCHQ chief Jeremy Fleming made a rare public intervention to warn Russia poses an ‘active threat’ to Britain and its allies; ■Security minister Ben Wallace said Russian president Vladimir Putin bore ‘ultimate responsibility’ for the attack, which killed mother-of-three Dawn Sturgess; ■Whitehall sources said dozens of Russian oligarchs could have their assets seized as part of a police investigation into the ‘unexplained wealth’ of more than 100 foreign nationals ordered in the wake of the attack. The Salisbury attack was the first use of chemical weapons on the streets of the UK.
Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia were left fighting for their lives by the novichok poison, as was Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey.
Miss Sturgess and her partner Charlie Rowley were taken ill in July when they picked up an abandoned perfume bottle used by the Russian agents to smuggle the novichok into the country.
Last night’s joint statement by the leaders of the US, Germany, France, Canada and the UK represents a significant diplomatic coup for Mrs May.
They said they backed Britain’s assessment that the Novichok attack in March had been carried out by members of Russia’s military intelligence, the GRU.
And they pointed the finger at Mr Putin, saying the assassination attempt ‘was almost certainly approved at a senior government level’.
Britain and its allies have already expelled more than 150 suspected Russian spies in the wake of the attack in March.
But in their statement yesterday, the leaders went further.
They said the British investigation ‘further strengthens our intent to continue to disrupt together the hostile activities of foreign intelligence networks on our territories, uphold the prohibition of chemical weapons, protect our citizens and defend ourselves from all forms of malign state activity directed against us and our societies’. The statement followed a flurry of diplomatic activity in which Mrs May called President Trump, President Macron, Mrs Merkel and Mr Trudeau to brief them on the police findings.
Sources said the UK’s national security adviser Sir Mark Sedwill would now brief his counterparts in detail as they co-ordinate plans to disrupt the GRU. Mrs May is also pushing the West to adopt new sanctions against Russia’s ailing economy to put pressure on Mr Putin to rein in his aggressive activity.
The Prime Minister told MPs on Wednesday that the ‘full range of tools’ from the security services would be deployed against the GRU.
Interpol has also been placed on red alert for Petrov and Boshirov – with Mrs May warning they will be brought to the UK to stand trial if they set foot outside Russia.
Mr Wallace, asked whether there would be retaliation for Russia’s activities, particularly in cyber space, said: ‘We do all the time, but we retaliate in our way.
‘We are not the Russians, we don’t adopt the sort of thuggish, destructive and aggressive behaviour that we have seen.’
Mr Wallace also mocked the would-be assassins, saying that for all their menace they had bungled their mission. He added: ‘This was more Johnny English than James Bond.’
‘Destructive and aggressive’