Russian spy expulsions ratchet up

MOSCOW: Moscow has told Britain it must cut slightly more than 50 extra diplomatic and technical staff in Russia as a standoff deepened over the poisoning of a Russian former spy and his daughter in England, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.

Moscow also demanded an official explanation for the search of a Russian passenger plane in London, saying it reserved the right to act similarly against British airlines in Russia. Britain said the search was routine.

Russia advised its citizens to think carefully before travelling to Britain, warning they could fall victim to official harassment.

More than 100 Russian diplomats have been expelled by Western countries, including 23 from Britain, to retaliate against the Kremlin over the March 4 attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the historic English city of Salisbury.

London says Moscow was responsible for the first known use of a militarygrade nerve agent on European soil since World War 2, and Britain’s defence minister on Saturday said it was ‘‘heartening’’ to see the backing of international allies.

Russia had already ejected 23 British diplomats. The Foreign Ministry summoned British Ambassador Laurie Bristow and told him London had a month to further cut its diplomatic contingent in Russia to the same size as the Russian mission in Britain. It also expelled 59 diplomats from 23 other countries for backing Britain.

A Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said the demand

meant Britain would have to cut ‘‘a little over 50’’ more of its diplomatic and technical staff in Russia.

The Russian Foreign Ministry later published a list of 14 questions its London embassy had sent Britain’s Foreign Office. It included queries about why Russia had been denied consular access to the Skripals and about France’s role in the case.

Underlining the seriousness of the diplomatic crisis, the Russian Embassy advised Russians to think twice before travelling to Britain.

Russia’s Ministry of Transport demanded Britain explain an Aeroflot airliner being searched at Heathrow Airport on Friday, in what the Russian Embassy in London called a ‘‘blatant provocation’’.

Britain’s Foreign Office also said on Saturday it was considering allowing visits under consular access terms to Yulia Skripal, who was recovering in hospital against all expectations and was no longer listed as being in a critical condition. — Reuters