May poised to take ‘meaningful’ action against Moscow over nerve agent attack
Fresh sanctions, expelling diplomats and blocking oligarchs’ assets are all on the PM’S agenda
THERESA MAY is expected to announce sanctions against Russia as soon as Monday as pressure mounted on her to take “meaningful” action against Vladimir Putin over the Salisbury poisoning outrage.
The Prime Minister is expecting to receive confirmation from the Ministry of Defence’s Porton Down laboratory over the weekend that Russia was, beyond reasonable doubt, the source of the nerve agent used in the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal, the former double agent, and Yulia, his daughter.
Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, will today chair a meeting of the Government’s Cobra emergency committee. Downing Street sources said the decision to call the meeting for 1pm reflected the “fast-moving pace” of the investigation as police and the security services close in on the “who, what, when” of the poisoning. Tobias Ellwood, the defence minister, said: “We mustn’t get ahead of ourselves but we must have a robust response and it’s something that we’ll be discussing with our Nato partners and with the forthcoming [Nato] summit in Brussels in July.”
Mrs May will spend this weekend at home in her Maidenhead constituency contemplating the Government’s response to last Sunday’s attack, which also left Det Sgt Nick Bailey in hospital after he visited Col Skripal’s house.
Last year Mrs May warned Russia: “We know what you are doing and you will not succeed,” and next week she is widely expected to announce fresh sanctions against Russia designed to hit oligarchs with close links to Mr Putin
‘We need to call out the Russians… because they think we are weak’
who have assets in the UK. As well as having assets frozen, their visas could be cancelled and they could be banned from entering the UK.
In addition Russian diplomats could be expelled, together with the withdrawal of Dr Laurie Bristow, Britain’s Ambassador to Russia, to downgrade Moscow to consular status.
Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, will be asked to build an international coalition including France, Germany and the US, to back fresh sanctions, with talks already going on behind the scenes.
Mrs May wants to strengthen existing European sanctions and extend them to include wealthy Russian nationals so they will have nowhere to go if they are blocked from Britain.
Bob Seely, the Conservative MP, an ex-soldier who lived in the former Soviet Union in the Nineties, said the Government needed to set up “meaningful” long-term plans for dealing with the increased Russian threat.
He said: “Sanctions might take the heat out of the situation but they will not necessarily resolve it. We need to work with others, like the US, Canada and the Baltic states, to form an international commission, like we had during the Cold War, reporting regularly on Russia’s covert activities. We need to call out the Russians and we need to increase our defence budget because they think we are weak.
“On top of that, the City of London and New York need to work together on a sanctions list so the people on that list know their assets can be seized.”
Donald Trump’s administration drew up a list of prominent Russians earlier this year as part of a sanctions regime designed to punish the country for interfering in American elections.
The list includes 114 senior figures in Mr Putin’s government and 96 oligarchs worth more than $1 billion (£720million) each.
Two of the senior figures on the list, Roman Abramovich, the Chelsea FC owner, and Alisher Usmanov, Arsenal part-owner, have strong links to London.
Calls are growing for the UK to sign up to the list and block the financial assets of the group.
Crispin Blunt MP, a member of the Foreign Affairs select committee, said: “Putin is held in place by people who have made their money through him, those are the people we should be targeting.”