Britain orders Russian envoys expelled over ex-spy poisoning
LONDON >> Britain ordered the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats believed involved in espionage-related activities, British Prime Minister Theresa May announced Wednesday, in the first wave of measures against Moscow for a nerve-gas attack against a former double agent.
May, speaking to Parliament, also outlined a range of other steps, including a halt to high-level meetings with Russian officials and calling off a planned visit to Britain by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
May repeated the conclusion of British investigators that Russia had either deployed or lost control of dangerous nerve agents used in the attack — targeting the former spy and his daughter — and called Russia’s defiant response has “demonstrated complete disdain for the gravity of these events.”
“Instead they have treated the use of a military grade nerve agent in Europe with sarcasm, contempt and defiance,” she told lawmakers while announcing the reprisal measures.
She gave no further details on the Russian diplomats ordered expelled, but said they were deemed
“undeclared intelligence officers.” She called it the largest expulsion of Russian diplomats from Britain since Cold War- era retribution in the 1970s.
May said more countermeasures were being considered. She said Britain sought support from the United States, European Union and NATO, but did not outline any requests she made from allies to join in the reprisals.
Lawmakers in Parliament asked May pointedly what Britain’s allies were willing to do — and she mostly evaded the question, except to say that they had offered Britain support.
Earlier, Britain’s Foreign Ministry also called for an
urgent meeting of the U.N. Security Council to update members on the investigation into the nerve agent attack. Russia, as part of the permanent five nations on the council, holds veto power over any possible U.N. moves to come.
“It is not in our national interest to break off all dialogue between the United Kingdom and the Russian federation. But in the aftermath of this appalling act against our country this relationship cannot be the same,” May said.
On Monday, May said that it was “highly likely” that Russia was behind a poison attack and gave the Russian government a deadline to explain itself and where the rare and powerful “weapons-grade” nerve agent came from.
As expected, May’s deadline passed on Wednesday and Russia did not respond — or did not respond with the details or explanations that Britain sought.
Instead, Russian officials and state media assailed the British for whipping up “anti-Russia hysteria.” The Kremlin rejected the “unfounded accusations” and shrugged off British demands.
British politicians and commentators said May could use a range of diplomatic and financial sanctions - fromclamping down on Russian oligarchs’ property-buying binge in London to tossing out embassy staff.
May could also ask the European Union, or even NATO, to join in a response to what she described as a “reckless” and “indiscriminate” attack, which not only endangered the lives of its two principal victims, the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter, Yulia, 33, but also potentially exposed scores of others to the nerve agent, including a police officer who remains hospitalized.
Skripal was jailed in Russia in 2006 for selling state secrets to British intelligence for 10 years, but he was released in 2010 as part of a high-profile spy swap. He and his daughter remain in critical condition.