Russia threatens retaliation over May’s expulsions
Spy suspects kicked out after ex-agent’s poisoning
RUSSIA HAS threatened retaliatory measures after Theresa May announced that 23 suspected spies at its London embassy were being kicked out of the UK in the largest mass expulsion of diplomats since the Cold War.
Announcing the action in the House of Commons, Mrs May said the nerve agent attack on exspy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury amounted to “an unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom”.
She announced the suspension of high-level contacts with Russia, including a boycott of this summer’s World Cup by Government ministers and members of the royal family.
And she said Russian state assets will be frozen “wherever we have the evidence that they may be used to threaten the life or property of UK nationals or residents”.
Moscow’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced the “unprecedentedly crude provocation” and warned: “Our response will not be long in coming.”
In a statement, the ministry said: “We consider it categorically unacceptable and unworthy that the British Government, in its unseemly political aims, further seriously aggravated relations, announcing a whole set of hostile measures, including the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats from the country.”
But Mrs May said Russia had failed to provide a “credible” explanation for how the Novichok nerve agent which it had developed came to be used in the attack on the Skripals, who remain in hospital after being found slumped on a bench on March 4.
She told MPs: “There is no alternative conclusion other than that the Russian state was culpable for the attempted murder of Mr Skripal and his daughter – and for threatening the lives of other British citizens in Salisbury, including Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey. This represents an unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom.”
Elsewhere, Britain’s deputy UN ambassador, Jonathan Allen, has said the government is asking the international chemical weapons watchdog to independently verify its analysis that a military-grade nerve agent from the former Soviet Union was used in the Salisbury poisoning
Mrs May addressed MPs after being briefed by senior military and intelligence chiefs at a meeting of the National Security Council at which it was agreed to take “immediate actions to dismantle Russia’s spy network in the UK”.
The Russian diplomats identified as undeclared intelligence officers have been given a week to leave, in the largest mass expulsion since 31 were ordered out in 1985 following the defection of double agent Oleg Gordievsky.
The expulsions will “fundamentally degrade Russian intelligence capability in the UK for years to come”, said Mrs May, adding: “If they seek to rebuild it, we will prevent them from doing so.”
Mrs May told MPs the Government will also develop new powers “to harden our defences against all forms of hostile state activity”, including by tightening checks on cross-border movements of those who may endanger UK security.
Meanwhile, the US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, reinforced the country’s “strong bond” with the UK, during the meeting of the UN Security Council. She said: “Let me make one thing clear from the very beginning, the United States stands in absolute solidarity with Great Britain. The United States believes that Russia is responsible for the attack on two people in the United Kingdom using a militarygrade nerve agent.
“No two nations enjoy a stronger bond than that of the United States and the United Kingdom. Ours is truly a special relationship.”
JEREMY CORBYN was heckled following his latest response to the Salisbury attack in which he condemned the “appalling act of violence” before urging continued “robust dialogue” with Russia.
The Labour leader was also barracked by Tory MPs after saying it was a “matter of huge regret” that budgets to the diplomatic service had been cut, as counter-terrorism chiefs continue to investigate the nerve agent attack.
Prime Minister Theresa May told Mr Corbyn that there was a consensus on the situation – it just did not extend to the Labour leader.
It came as Russia threatened retaliatory action yesterday after, Mrs May announced that 23 suspected spies at its London embassy were being kicked out of the UK in the largest mass expulsion of diplomats to take place since the Cold War.
Announcing the action, Mrs May said the nerve agent attack on ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury amounted to “an unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom”.
The UK’s counter-terrorism chiefs continued investigations yesterday as part of a huge police inquiry, launched after former double agent Mr Skripal, 66, and his daughter, 33, were found slumped on a bench in Salisbury, Wiltshire, on March 4.
The investigation widened to Gillingham in Dorset, near Salisbury, yesterday and officers told some residents to stay indoors as police secured a vehicle as part of the inquiry.
Meanwhile, Mr Corbyn also faced shouts of “That’s how you do it” in the House of Commons, after SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford had insisted a “robust response to the use of terror on our streets” was needed, and pledged his party would work “constructively” with the Government.
The DUP’s Sammy Wilson (East Antrim) also told the Commons: “We welcome the decisive action that has been taken by the Prime Minister today and it sits in contrast with the policy of appeasement that we have heard from the frontbench of the Labour Party.”
Speaking after Theresa May had updated MPs, Mr Corbyn said: “The attack in Salisbury was an appalling act of violence. Nerve agents are abominable if used in any war – it is utterly reckless to use them in a civilian environment.
“Can the Prime Minister update the House on what conversations, if any, she has had with the Russian Government and while suspending planned high level contact does the Prime Minister agree that it is essential to maintain a robust dialogue with Russia?
“We should urge our international allies to join us and call on Russia to reveal without delay full details of its chemical weapons programme.”
Mr Corbyn went on to call on the Government to reassess deaths of other Russians who had been killed on British soil, including Nikolai Glushkov, found dead at his London home on Tuesday.
Mrs May said: “It is clear from the conversations I have had with allies that we have a consensus with our allies, it was clear from the remarks that were made by backbenchers across the whole of this House on Monday that there is a consensus across the backbenches of this House.”
The attack in Salisbury was an appalling act of violence.
Jeremy Corbyn, Labour leader
THERESA MAY’S resolve after the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury stood in contrast to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn who failed to condemn the culpability of the Russian state after it offered no explanation for the use of a ‘military grade’ nerve agent on British soil.
Mrs May proved her mettle. Not to expel 23 Russian diplomats, and take other steps to protect Britain’s national security, would have been an act of weakness on the Prime Minister’s part after her 36hour ultimatum to Moscow to provide a plausible explanation for the use of this chemical weapon, which it ignored. What is deeply disturbing is that the Opposition leader again disassociated himself from Parliament’s unequivocal condemnation and crossparty consensus that has emerged in recent days.
As she said, Vladimir Putin’s government has shown “complete disdain” for the gravity of these events by responding, in the defiant words of the Tory leader, with “sarcasm, contempt and defiance” that must not go unchecked if the monitoring of chemical weapons is not to be undermined by an increasingly reckless Russian regime that has shattered the hope that existed after the break-up of the former Soviet Union and fall of the Berlin Wall.
The Prime Minister’s response is proportionate while also garnering the support of the United Nations, Nato, the EU and those longstanding allies of the UK whose democracy and security has also been compromised by these acts of aggression and hostility. As she said, Britain’s grievance is not with the Russian people or its law-abiding citizens who have made their home here; it is with a rogue state which disregards the laws governing global democracy. The question now is how the wider world channels its outrage and holds Russia to account for its bullying – Britain, with or without Mr Corbyn’s acquiescence, can’t do it alone.