Moscow’s ambassador hosts a farewell for expelled ‘spies’
‘The world is much bigger than the United Kingdom,’ diplomats told as Kremlin matches Britain’s actions
RUSSIA’S ambassador to London has reassured alleged spies kicked out by Theresa May that the world is much bigger than Britain and their careers will continue elsewhere, as he hosted a leaving reception in their honour.
Alexander Yakovenko hosted the event for 23 diplomats thrown out of the country as part of UK sanctions for the Kremlin’s refusal to explain how Col Sergei Skripal came to be poisoned by a rare, military-grade, nerve agent in Salisbury.
The Prime Minister said last week the unnamed diplomats were deliberately targeted because they were undeclared spies and the move to kick them out would cripple Russian espionage networks within the UK.
But an embassy statement said the ambassador had told staff he blamed the “hostile decision” of the British government and thanked them for their work. Mr Yakovenko “noted that for those who are returning to Russia one period in their career is ending and another one is starting”, the embassy said. He told them: “The world is much bigger than the United Kingdom. Your knowledge and experience gained at the embassy will always be valued in the Russian diplomatic service”.
As the Kremlin matched the expulsion with the removal of 23 Britons from Russia, Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, thanked diplomatic staff in the UK’s Moscow embassy for “a great job in difficult circumstances”. A Foreign Office spokesman said the expulsions and the Kremlin’s order to close the British Consulate-General in St Petersburg and the British Council in Moscow had been expected.
A statement said: “Russia’s response doesn’t change the facts of the matter – the attempted assassination of two people on British soil, for which there is no alternative conclusion other than that the Russian State was culpable.”
Meanwhile Russia continued to deny involvement and claimed the Novichok nerve agent used on Col Skripal and his daughter Yulia had been manufactured elsewhere. But Vil Mirzayanov, the scientist-turned-whistleblower who had alerted the West to Moscow’s secret chemical weapons programme in the Nineties, said he believed only Russia could have manufactured it.
Mr Mirzayanov told The Guardian: “No one country has these capabilities like Russia, because Russia invented, tested and weaponised Novichok.”
Sir Roderic Lyne a former ambassador to Russia, warned against escalating the diplomatic tit-for-tat battle. “I don’t think it would be sensible to get into a mud-wrestling battle with a gorilla,” he told BBC Radio.