Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Trump joins allies, expels 60 Russians
Poisoning of ex-spy in U.K. prompts 23 countries to act
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump ordered the expulsion of 60 Russians from the United States on Monday, adding to a growing cascade of similar actions taken by Western allies in response to Russia’s alleged poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain.
Poland, Italy, Denmark, France and Germany were among 14 European Union member nations announcing plans to expel Russians from their countries in solidarity with Britain, which previously expelled 23 Russian diplomats after the poisoning. Canada also said it would expel four, and Australia said it would expel two.
All told, at least 23 countries have ousted more than 135 Russians, including the 23 kicked out earlier by the U.K.
“Together we have sent a message that we will not tolerate Russia’s continued attempts to flout international law and undermine our values,” British Prime Minister Theresa May told Parliament.
The U.S. expulsion order, announced by administration officials, includes 12 people identified as Russian intelligence officers who have been stationed at the United Nations in New York, and also closes the Russian Consulate in Seattle. The Russians and their families have seven days to leave the United States, according to officials.
The expulsions are the toughest action taken against the Kremlin by Trump, who has been criticized for not being firm enough with President Vladimir Putin of Russia. The officials said the action was a coordinated effort with other allies.
In a call with reporters, senior White House officials said that the move was to root out Russians actively engaging in intelligence operations against the country, and to show that the United States would stand with NATO allies. The officials said that the closure of the consulate in Seattle was ordered because of its proximity to a U.S. naval base and a Boeing Co. facility.
“Today’s actions make the United States safer by reducing Russia’s ability to spy on Americans and to conduct covert operations that threaten America’s national security,” the White House said in a statement.
The dozen posted to Russia’s U.N. mission were also engaged in “aggressive collection” of intelligence on American soil, officials said.
“When we see these espionage tactics that are taking place right here at the heart of the U.N., we can’t have that,” said Nikki Haley, Trump’s ambassador to the U.N.
U.S. officials estimate there are currently more than 100 Russian intelligence officers in the United States.
Britain’s decision to expel 23 Russian diplomats over the poisoning initially raised tensions between the two countries to a level not seen since the Cold War. The government vowed to crack down on Russian spies, corrupt elites and ill-gotten wealth in Britain.
On March 15, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on a series of Russian organizations and individuals for interference in the 2016 presidential election and other “malicious cyberattacks,” its most significant action against Moscow until Monday.
Those sanctions came as the United States joined Britain, France and Germany in denouncing Russia for its apparent role in a nerve-gas attack on a former Russian spy and his daughter on British soil, calling it a “clear violation” of international law.
White House officials called the nerve agent used against Sergei Skripal and his daughter “military grade,” but declined to elaborate on the substance used.
Britain has accused Moscow of using the Soviet-developed nerve agent Novichok to poison Sergei Skripal, 66, a former Russian military intelligence officer convicted of spying for the U.K., and his daughter, Yulia Skripal, 33. The two remain in critical condition and unconscious. The U.S., France and Germany have agreed it’s highly likely Russia was responsible. Russia has denied responsibility, while accusing Britain of leading a global charge against it without proof.
Trump has said that, despite its denials, Russia was likely behind it. “It looks like it,” he told reporters in the Oval Office on March 15, adding that he had spoken with May.
Even lawmakers who have scolded Trump the loudest for failing to confront Russia for spying and election meddling praised the expulsions Monday. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., called it “a welcome step forward in holding Putin accountable.”
ATTACK ON CIVILIANS
Poland has positioned itself to take a lead role in coordinating a response from the Eastern European nations traditionally most wary of their giant neighbor to the east.
The Russian ambassador to Poland, Sergei Andreyev, was summoned to the Foreign Ministry on Monday morning and informed of imminent diplomatic action against his country. The Polish foreign minister was expected to make an announcement later this afternoon.
Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz called the tragic incident in Britain an “unprecedented attack on civilians with the use of chemical weapon,” that had not been seen since World War II.
Czaputowicz said the Russian ambassador and three other diplomats were now considered “persona non grata,” giving them until April 3 to leave the country.
Russia’s overall goal, Czaputowicz said, is to “disrupt international order and create a sense of danger.”
In the Czech Republic, where Russian officials have claimed the poison may have originated, Prime Minister Andrej Babis dismissed that allegation as “an utter lie.”
The list of nations expelling Russians included several others in Russia’s backyard that have much at stake. Ukraine, a non-EU country with its own conflicts with Moscow, was expelling 13 Russians. All three Baltic states said they would make diplomats leave.
Almost all of the countries said publicly that those being expelled were actually Russians intelligence operatives working under diplomatic cover.
RUSSIA VOWS RESPONSE
Moscow threatened retaliation in kind, suggesting it would kick out an equal number of foreign diplomats. Russia’s Embassy in Washington responded to the Seattle consulate closure by asking its Twitter followers to “vote” which U.S. Consulate should be shuttered in turn: St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg or Vladivostok.
“This unfriendly step by this group of countries won’t pass without impact and we will respond,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a website statement, accusing the U.K.’s allies of “blindly following the principle of Euro-Atlantic unity.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the moves “mistaken” and said Russia’s response “will be guided by the principle of reciprocity.” Putin will make the final decision on retaliation, he said.
“This is an attempt on the lives of Russian citizens on the territory of Great Britain,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said. “It goes without saying that this unfriendly move by this group of countries will not go unnoticed.”
Yet it was unclear whether the expulsions, which may be inconvenient for Moscow but don’t take aim at its economy, would be enough to alter Putin’s behavior.
“There is no actual deterrence and squeeze,” said James Nixey, head of the Russia program at think tank Chatham House. “There is, so far, no cyber-response, no financial response.”
“Relations are crashing worse than they did in the Cold War,” said Fyodor Lukyanov, head of Russia’s Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, a research group that advises the Kremlin. “This kind of multilateral expulsion is unprecedented.”
“This is more serious than it was predicted. Everything now depends on Russia’s will to escalate,” said Vladimir Frolov, a former diplomat and foreign-affairs analyst in Moscow. “The U.S. measures included Russia’s U.N. mission, and this is an escalation,” he said, noting that such large numbers had been expelled last at the height of Cold War tensions in the 1980s. He said that Russia would likely retaliate for the closing of the consulate by ordering the U.S. to leave a diplomatic facility, as well.
“Increasingly, diplomacy is becoming irrelevant in Russian-U.S. relations,” Dmitri Trenin, head of the Carnegie Moscow Center, wrote in Twitter.
Senior members of Russia’s parliament said they expected Moscow to respond with tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats from each country that ousted its envoys.
The U.S. and Russia have engaged in multiple diplomatic retaliations in the past 15 months. President Barack Obama’s administration expelled 35 Russian diplomats and shut down two embassy compounds that it said were used for “intelligence-related purposes” in December 2016 in response to alleged Kremlin hacking of the presidential elections won by Trump.
Putin held back from an immediate response, a decision praised as “very smart” by Trump, who had campaigned on a pledge of improved relations with the Kremlin leader. But after legislators passed a law last July that prevented Trump from easing sanctions without congressional approval, Putin ordered the U.S. to cut staff at its diplomatic missions in Russia by 755, or nearly twothirds, by Sept. 1.
The State Department hit back at that decision by directing Russia to close three buildings in the U.S., including its Consulate General in San Francisco, by Sept. 2. Information for this article was contributed by Katie Rogers and Eileen Sullivan of The New
York Times; by Josh Lederman, Jill Lawless, Matthew Lee, Chris Grygiel, Vladimir Isachenkov, Raf Casert, Jennifer Peltz, Sylvia Corbett, Monika Scislowska and Rob Gillies of The Associated Press; and by Stepan Kravchenko and Ilya Arkhipov of Bloomberg News.