The West unites
Washington expelled 60 Russian diplomats and announced the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle in retaliation for the nerve-agent attack in Salisbury earlier this month, which it blames on Moscow. Britain had already ordered 23 Russian diplomats suspected of spying to leave the country, and 18 EU countries, as well as Ukraine, Canada, Australia and Nato, have taken similar action. Earlier last week – after European leaders agreed at a Brussels summit that it was “highly likely” Russia was behind the nerve-agent attack on former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia – the EU recalled its ambassador to Moscow.
The response is the largest ever collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers – a clear sign, said Theresa May, that Britain and its allies stand “shoulder to shoulder” against Russia’s flouting of international law. The Kremlin damned it as a “provocative gesture” and vowed to retaliate.
What the editorials said
The Prime Minister is back from Brussels with a “spring in her step”, said the Daily Mail, and rightly so. By securing the “resounding support” of the EU for her stand against Russia, May has laid to rest any fears that Brexit will “sour security cooperation” with Brussels. And the West’s united line – the EU has spoken of its “unqualified solidarity” – should pay dividends, said The Daily Telegraph. It was almost certainly “concerted European economic and diplomatic pressure” that prevented President Putin from launching an all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2014. The latest moves should serve as a similar warning shot to the Kremlin. If only the Foreign Secretary had shown the same diplomatic gifts as his boss, said The Guardian. In Parliament last week, Boris Johnson compared this summer’s football World Cup in Russia to the 1936 Olympics, in Berlin, which Adolf Hitler used as a propaganda platform for his regime. Such comments merely “give gratuitous offence to ordinary Russians who cherish their nation’s historic role in the defeat of Nazism”.