Britain blames Russia for nerve agent attack
LONDON — Britain’s prime minister said Monday that Moscow was “highly likely” to blame for the poisoning of a former Russian spy attacked with a nerve agent near his home in southern England, and warned of possible reprisals.
The remarks by Prime Minister Theresa May, delivered in an address to Parliament, were an unusually direct condemnation of a country that Britain has, in the past, been loath to blame for attacks on its soil. Critics say British authorities took only modest countermeasures after Russian agents poisoned a former MI6 informant in 2006 with a rare isotope, polonium 210.
The prime minister, who as home secretary resisted an open inquiry into Russia’s role in that case, was under pressure to show more resolve this time.
The March 4 nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal, once an informant for Britain’s foreign intelligence service, and his daughter, Yulia, occurred in and around public spaces in the city of Salisbury. Almost two dozen people, including emergency workers, were given medical treatment, and one police officer is still hospitalized.
“It is now clear that Mr. Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia,” May said in the House of Commons. “The government has concluded that it is highly likely that Russia was responsible for the act against Sergei and Yulia Skripal.”
She said that either the poisoning was a “direct act of the Russian state against our country” or that Moscow had lost control of its nerve agent and had allowed it to get into the hands of others. The prime minister said the government had summoned the Russian ambassador to demand an explanation.
“Should there be no credible response, we will conclude that this action amounts to an unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom, and I will come back to this House and set out the full range of measures we will take in response,” May said.
“We shall not tolerate such a brazen act to murder innocent civilians on our soil.”
The relationship between Russia and Britain under May has been punctuated by repeated confrontation, over the annexation of Crimea and Russian interference in elections, among other issues.
But Britain has held back from aggressive retaliatory measures. Expelling Russian spies, for example, would mean a cutoff in Britain’s own flow of information from Moscow if Russia retaliated.
On Monday, the White House condemned the attack — but did not join Britain in pointing a finger a Russia.
“This is a circus show in the British Parliament,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told journalists in Moscow, according to the Interfax news agency.
Still, amid denials last week by Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, an anchor on Russia’s state-controlled news broadcast struck a different note, warning Russians not to betray their country. If they do, he said, “Don’t choose Britain as a place to live.”
In her address to Parliament, May said the nerve agent was part of a group known as Novichok, the Russian term for “newcomer.” The chemical was produced by the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s, and, at the time, was believed to be far more lethal than anything in the U.S. arsenal.
Dispersed in a powder, Novichok nerve agents blocked the breakdown of a neurotransmitter controlling muscular contractions, leading to respiratory and cardiac arrest.
Over the last week, chemical weapons experts fanned out through the sleepy cathedral city of Salisbury, and residents who may have been near Skripal and his daughter were told to wash their clothing and carefully wipe off other articles. Politicians have urged the government to respond.