Prez’s ‘poison’ pledge
President Trump said the United States would stand by the UK following the poison attack on a Russian spy who was a double agent for the Brits — and seemed sympathetic to the charge that Russia was to blame.
“Well it sounds to me, I’m speaking to Theresa May today. It sounds to me like it would be Russia, based on all of the evidence they have,” he said Tuesday, referring to the British prime minister.
But the president also hedged, suggesting that British authorities were still investigating the sinister case, which sent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia to the hospital, where they remain in critical condition.
“I don’t know if they’ve come to a conclusion, but she’s calling me today. It sounds to me like they believe it was Russia and I would certainly take that finding as fact,” he said.
“As soon as we get the facts straight . . . if we agree with them, we will condemn Russia or whoever it may be.”
Then pair was poisoned with a militarygrade nerve agent.
Russia has used a military-grade terror weapon in an assassination on the soil of America’s closest ally. Washington must stand firmly with London in retaliating against the Putin regime.
The nerve agent that brought former Russian spy and British double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, to death’s door is one of the Novichok family of toxins developed by the Soviet Union in its last days.
Unless the Russians can show they somehow lost control of highly secret weapons, British Prime Minister Theresa May told the House of Commons, this was “a direct act of the Russian state against our country.”
Neither May nor President Trump can hide behind courtroom standards of evidence here: Someone Putin wanted dead was attacked with a weapon only he has — an assault that also exposed thousands of Britons to the poison and forced dozens to get medical treatment.
This sort of “brazen act to murder innocent civilians on our soil,” will not stand, May said.
If Moscow doesn’t provide an explanation, she will “conclude that this action amounts to an unlawful use of force by the Russian State against the United Kingdom,” and respond accordingly.
Team Trump needs to back her play — indeed, to make sure she doesn’t go wobbly. For starters, both nations can target the billions that top Putinites now much-too-easily park in the West.
More active responses must follow. Putin has crossed a line that the Soviets honored even in the depths of the Cold War. If he gets away with it, there’s far worse to come.