Russia to expel 23 British diplomats
MOSCOW: Russia announced on Saturday it will expel 23 British diplomats and halt the activities of the British Council in response to London’s “provocative” measures over the poisoning of a former Russian double agent and his daughter.
“Twenty- three diplomatic staff at the British embassy in Moscow are declared persona non grata and to be expelled within a week,” the foreign ministry said in a statement after summoning the British ambassador Laurie Bristow.
It said the move was a response to Britain’s “provocative actions” and “baseless accusations over the incident in Salisbury on March 4,” referring to the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal with a nerve agent developed in the Soviet Union, which Britain has blamed on Russia.
Russia also said it was halting the activities of the British Council, Britain’s international organization for cultural relations and educational opportunities, across the country.
“Due to the unregulated status of the British Council in Russia, its activity is halted,” the foreign ministry said.
The ministry had also warned Britain that “if further unfriendly actions are taken towards Russia, the Russian side retains the right to take other answering measures.”
Britain provoked Russia’s wrath on Friday by directly implicating Vladimir Putin in the poisoning attack on an ex- double agent, with the Kremlin saying the claims were “shocking and unforgivable.”
The war of words between Moscow and London over the nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy escalated as Britain’s Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said his government’s “quarrel” was with Putin rather than the Russian people.
“We think it overwhelmingly likely that it was his decision to direct the use of a nerve agent on the streets of the UK, on the streets of Europe, for War,” Johnson said in London.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded, saying Johnson’s claims violated all rules of diplomatic protocol.
Linking Putin to the attack on Sergei Skripal, who moved to Britain in a 2010 spy swap, “is nothing but shocking and unforgivable behavior from the point of view of diplomacy,” Peskov told Russian news agencies.
The crisis has unraveled in the thick of Russia’s presidential campaign, with Putin expected to win a fourth Kremlin term on Sunday.
In a rare joint statement, the leaders of Britain, France, Germany and the United States on Thursday condemned the attack on Skripal and his daughter Yulia— both in a critical but stable condition in hospital— as an “assault on UK sovereignty.”
They said there was “no plausible alternative explanation” for the use of the Soviet- designed nerve agent other than Russian responsibility.
initially attended to the Skripals, was also in hospital in a critical state, though conscious, but his health has improved and he is now in a stable condition, England’s health service said on Friday.
Alexander Yakovenko, Russia’s ambassador to Britain, told Channel 4 television that Britain’s response to the attack was a “gross provocation.”
He branded the British investigation “untransparent and secret,” adding that there was “no proof” that Skripal was gravely ill.
Meanwhile the Investigative Committee, which reports to Putin, opened a probe into the “attempted premeditated murder” of Skripal’s daughter, a Russian national, which it said had been “carried out in a way that was dangerous to the public.”