The Russian foreign ministry has given Britain one month to cut its entire diplomatic staff to match Russia’s own mission to the UK as the fallout following the Salisbury poisoning intensified.

The move could see scores of employees in the British embassy in Moscow and consulates in St Petersburg and Ekaterinburg dismissed from their jobs.

Laurie Bristow, Britain’s ambassador to Moscow, was summoned for talks and told to reduce staff at his embassy and the consulates to mirror the exact size of Russia’s diplomatic mission in the UK. Russia has an embassy in London and consulate in Edinburgh.

Although the Foreign Office refused to say whether this meant Russia was effectively increasing the number of diplomats it was expelling, a spokeswoman described the latest development as “regrettable” but “anticipated”.

The Russian ministry, in a statement, said it had summoned the British ambassador to the foreign ministry building and handed him a note of protest.

It said Britain's "provocative actions" had led to the decision by multiple Western governments to expel scores of Russian diplomats from their capitals. </s> Russia says Britain has one month to reduce diplomatic presence: foreign ministry

Also Russia on Friday informed the Dutch ambassador of the expulsion of two diplomats in a tit-for-tat measure over the poisoning of a former Russian double agent in Britain, TASS state news agency reported.

Dutch Ambassador Renee Jones-Bos told TASS state news agency: “Two of my colleagues are leaving Moscow. But we (the embassy) are staying here.”

More so on Friday Russia government summoned European ambassadors to the foreign ministry to inform them of retaliatory measures to the expulsion of Russian diplomats over the poisoning of a former Russian double-agent in Britain.

Ambassadors from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia as well as several non-EU member countries arrived on Friday afternoon, an AFP photographer saw. </s> MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia expelled 23 British diplomats on Saturday in a carefully calibrated retaliatory move against London, which has accused the Kremlin of orchestrating a nerve toxin attack on a former Russian double agent and his daughter in southern England.

Escalating a crisis in relations, Russia said it was also shutting down the activities of the British Council, which fosters cultural links between the two countries, and Britain’s consulate-general in St. Petersburg.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said it was giving the 23 British diplomats one week to leave the country.

The move, which was tougher than expected, followed Britain’s decision on Wednesday to expel 23 Russian diplomats over the attack in the English city of Salisbury which left former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia Skripal, 33, critically ill in hospital.

Moscow announced the measures on the eve of a presidential election which incumbent Vladimir Putin should comfortably win. Putin has cast his country as a fortress besieged by hostile Western powers with him as its defender, and state media is likely to portray the anti-British move in that context.

The Foreign Ministry said Moscow’s measures were a response to what it called Britain’s “provocative actions and groundless accusations”. It warned London it stood ready to take further measures in the event of more “unfriendly steps”.

Relations between London and Moscow have crashed to a post-Cold War low over the Salisbury attack, the first known offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since World War Two.

British Prime Minister Theresa May said Britain would consider its next steps alongside its allies in the coming days.

“We will never tolerate a threat to the life of British citizens and others on British soil from the Russian Government. We can be reassured by the strong support we have received from our friends and allies around the world,” May said at the Conservative Party’s spring forum in London.

The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned the British ambassador, Laurie Bristow, to a meeting on Saturday morning in central Moscow at its Stalin-era headquarters during which he was informed of the retaliatory measures.

Bristow told reporters afterwards that Britain had only expelled the Russian diplomats after Moscow had failed to explain how the nerve toxin had got to Salisbury.

Britain’s foreign ministry said it had anticipated Russia’s response and its priority now looking after its staff in Russia and assisting those that will return home.

“Russia’s response doesn’t change the facts of the matter – the attempted assassination of two people on British soil, for which there is no alternative conclusion other than that the Russian State was culpable.” it said in a statement.

Russia’s response was more robust than expected. The closure of the British Council’s Moscow office will sever cultural ties, while that of the consulate-general in St Petersburg will end Britain’s diplomatic presence in Russia’s second city.

Russian news agencies cited politicians in Russia’s upper house of parliament as welcoming the move to close the British Council, alleging it had been used as a cover by British spies.

The British Council said it was profoundly disappointed by Russia’s decision and remained committed to developing long-term people-to-people links with Russia despite the closure.

Russia has complained that Britain has failed to provide any evidence of its involvement in the Salisbury attack and has said it is shocked and bemused by the allegations.

Britain has escalated a war of words with Russia over the incident in recent days. On Friday, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said it was overwhelmingly likely that Russian President Vladimir Putin himself had made the decision to use a military-grade nerve toxin to strike down Skripal.

Britain, the United States, Germany and France have jointly called on Russia to explain the attack, while U.S. President Donald Trump has said it looks as if the Russians were behind it.

Russia has said is open to cooperation with Britain, but has refused Britain’s demands to explain how Novichok, a nerve agent developed by the Soviet military, was used against the Skripals.

Skripal, a former colonel in the GRU who betrayed dozens of Russian agents to British intelligence, and his daughter have been critically ill since March 4, when they were found unconscious on a bench.

A British policeman was also poisoned when he went to help them and remains in a serious but stable condition.

Russian investigators said on Friday they had opened a criminal investigation into the attempted murder of Yulia Skripal and offered to cooperate with British authorities.

Russia offered some cooperation to British authorities after the 2006 London murder of ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko too.

Britain said the assistance in that case was not enough, and in 2016, a judge-led inquiry concluded that Putin had probably approved Litvinenko’s murder, something Moscow denies </s> Russian President Vladimir Putin says 755 U.S. diplomats must leave Russia in comments that have come after Moscow directed Washington to reduce the size of its diplomatic staff in the country in an escalating row over sanctions.

 

 Speaking in an interview with Russian state television broadcast on July 30, Putin said that "more than a thousand people were working and are still working" at the U.S. embassy and consulates in Russia, and that "755 people must stop their activities in Russia."

 

 Moscow ordered the reduction in U.S. diplomatic staff after U.S. lawmakers passed a bill that would impose additional sanctions on Russia and sent it to President Donald Trump for his signature.

 

 The Russian Foreign Ministry said the sanctions legislation confirmed what it called the "extreme aggression" of the United States in international affairs.

 

 Putin's announcement came two days after the White House said Trump would sign the bill, which would require him to seek congressional approval in order to ease sanctions against Moscow.

 

 The Russian Foreign Ministry had previously said that Washington must reduce its diplomatic staff to 455 people by September 1.

 

 Putin said in the July 30 interview that the reduced U.S. diplomatic presence would be "quite painful."

Based on reporting by TASS, AFP, and Reuters </s> LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will expel 23 Russian diplomats in retaliation for a chemical attack on a former Russian double agent, Prime Minister Theresa May said on Wednesday.

Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were found slumped unconscious on a bench outside a shopping center in the genteel southern English city of Salisbury on March 4. They have been in a critical condition ever since.

Below is a list of the actions set out by May in parliament on Wednesday:

- Britain will expel 23 Russian diplomats who it says have been identified as undeclared intelligence officers.

“They have just one week to leave,” May said. “This will be the single biggest expulsion for over thirty years and it reflects the fact that this is not the first time that the Russian State has acted against our country.”

- Britain “will freeze Russian state assets wherever we have the evidence that they may be used to threaten the life or property of UK nationals or residents”.

- Britain will develop new laws to harden its defenses against all forms of “hostile state activity” including being able to detain those suspected of hostile state activity at Britain’s borders. Currently this power is only used in relation to those suspected of terrorism.

- No British ministers or members of the Royal Family will attend this year’s soccer World Cup. Britain will suspend all planned high level bi-lateral contacts between the UK and the Russian Federation.

- All capabilities of UK law enforcement will be brought to bear against “serious criminals and corrupt elites”, May says, adding that there is there is “no place” for them or their money in Britain.

- Britain will “fundamentally degrade” Russian intelligence capability in the UK for years to come and prevent them from rebuilding it.

- Britain will start to monitor and track the intentions of those traveling to the UK who could be engaged in activity that threatens Britain and its allies. “We will increase checks on private flights, customs and freight,” she said.

- Britain’s interior minister will consider whether new counter-espionage powers are needed to clamp down on hostile activities of foreign agents in Britain.

- Britain will seek to strengthen its power to impose sanctions in response to the violations of human rights. “In doing so, we will play our part in an international effort to punish those responsible for the sorts of abuses suffered by Sergei Magnitsky,” May said.

- May said “it is tragic that President Putin has chosen to act in this way”, adding that she has no disagreement with Russian people or Russian citizens living in Britain in a law-abiding away. </s> MOSCOW (Reuters) - Moscow has told Britain it must cut just over 50 more of its 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 traveling 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 punish 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 military-grade nerve agent on European soil since World War Two, and Britain’s defense minister on Saturday said it was “heartening” to see the backing of international allies.

“The world’s patience with Putin’s repeated pattern of malign behavior has worn thin,” Gavin Williamson wrote in a newspaper column, urging that Britain’s defense capabilities needed to keep better step with Russia’s broadening tactics.

Russia denies responsibility for the attack. It has cast the allegations as a Western plot to sabotage East-West relations and isolate Moscow.

Russia had already retaliated in kind by ejecting 23 British diplomats. On Friday, the Foreign Ministry summoned British Ambassador Laurie Bristow and told him London had one 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 spokeswoman for Britain’s Foreign Office called the Russian move regrettable, and said it was considering the implications of the measures. She did not say how many diplomatic staff in Russia would be affected, while the British Embassy in Moscow says it does not make staff numbers public.

But Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the demand meant Britain would have to cut “a little over 50” more of its diplomatic and technical staff in Russia on top of the 23 diplomats who have already gone home.

“We asked for parity. The Brits have 50 diplomats more than the Russians,” Zakharova said on Saturday.

Asked if that meant London would now have to cut exactly 50 diplomatic and technical staff, she said: “A little over 50.”

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.

In a move underlining the serious nature of the diplomatic crisis, the Russian Embassy also advised Russians to think twice before traveling to Britain, warning of rising anti-Russian sentiment and possible harassment from the authorities, including the risk of objects being planted in their luggage.

“We can’t rule out increased attention by British law enforcement agencies and intelligence services to Russian passport holders,” the embassy said in a statement.

Russia’s Ministry of Transport meanwhile demanded Britain explain an Aeroflot (AFLT.MM) airliner was searched at Heathrow Airport on Friday, in what the Russian Embassy in London called a “blatant provocation”.

“It is routine for (Britain’s border agency) to search aircraft to protect the UK from organized crime and from those who attempt to bring harmful substances like drugs or firearms into the country,” Security Minister Ben Wallace said.

The Russian Embassy said Wallace’s logic was “difficult to comprehend” and only amplified its doubts about the incident.

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

Russia’s embassy said that it had contacted Viktoria Skripal, Yulia’s cousin. “Upon receiving confirmation that Yulia Skripal’s condition is getting better and she is able to communicate, she said she would like to go to London and to visit her cousin,” the embassy said.

The BBC reported on Friday that Yulia was “conscious and talking,” which may help the investigation of how she and her father were poisoned.

The poisoning on British territory has united much of the West in taking action against what it regards as the hostile policies of President Vladimir Putin. This includes the United States under President Donald Trump, whom Putin had hoped would improve ties. </s> Britain has held back from an immediate escalation of the round of tit-for-tat reprisals with Russia in the wake of the Salisbury poison attack.

But Prime Minister Theresa May told a meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) that further measures were under active consideration and she was ready to deploy them “at any time”.

There had been speculation that the NSC might agree new retaliatory measures, after Moscow’s response to the UK’s first round of sanctions went further than Mrs May’s expulsion of 23 suspected spies from the Russian embassy.

As well as throwing out 23 UK diplomats, Moscow ordered the British Council to cease activities in Russia and withdrew permission for the reopening of the St Petersburg consulate.

The Russian “undeclared intelligence officers” left the country’s consulate on Tuesday, six days after Mrs May gave them a week to pack their bags and leave the UK.

A procession of vehicles took a number of individuals away from the gated Kensington Palace Gardens complex close to the Russian Embassy in west London.

Children, suitcases, bags and pet baskets were loaded into the three cars, five people carriers and three small-sized coaches which left the west London complex shortly after 10am.

The NSC meeting heard that action had been taken over the past week to tighten checks on private flights coming into the UK and to prepare legislation which will allow the authorities to target the assets of foreign nationals linked to human rights abuses.

“The Prime Minister reiterated that we will freeze Russian state assets wherever we have the evidence that they may be used to threaten the life of property of UK nationals or residents,” said the PM’s spokesman.

“And – led by the National Crime Agency – we will continue to bring all the capabilities of UK law enforcement to bear against serious criminals and corrupt elites.

“The Prime Minister said that there are other measures the Government and security officials are actively considering and stand ready to deploy at any time.”

The spokesman declined to comment on the decision of the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, to write to Mr Putin to congratulate him on his re-election as president.

Without mentioning the March 4 nerve agent attack which has left ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in a critical condition in hospital and injured a policeman who came to their aid, Mr Juncker called in his letter for “positive relations” between the EU and Russia.

Meanwhile, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has said he would still do business with Mr Putin despite “all fingers” pointing towards Russia being responsible for the Salisbury spy incident.

He told Radio 4’s World At One: “All fingers point towards Russia’s involvement in this, and obviously the manufacture of the material was undertaken by the Russian state originally.

“What I’m saying is the weapons were made from Russia, clearly.

“I think Russia has to be held responsible for it but there has to be an absolutely definitive answer to the question where did the nerve agent come from? I asked the Russians be given a sample so that they can say categorically one way or the other.”

Mr Skripal, a former double agent, and his daughter are still fighting for their lives after being exposed to Novichok in the Wiltshire city.

Mr Corbyn maintained there had to be a relationship with Russia and said he would still “do business” with president Putin if Labour came into power.

“Would I do business with Putin? Sure. And I’d challenge him on human rights in Russia, challenge him on these issues and challenge him on that whole basis of that relationship,” he told the BBC.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson accused Russia of trying to conceal “the needle of truth in a haystack of lies” over the case – after Mr Putin dismissed the idea of Russian responsibility as “nonsense”.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, the Foreign Secretary said the use of a nerve agent against the Skripals was “very deliberate”.

“As Ken Clarke pointed out in Parliament last week, the obvious Russian-ness of the weapon was designed to send a signal to anyone pondering dissent amid the intensifying repression of Mr Putin’s Russia,” he wrote.

“The message is clear: we will hunt you down, we will find you and we will kill you – and though we will scornfully deny our guilt, the world will know that Russia did it.” </s> MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia expelled 23 British diplomats on Saturday in a carefully calibrated retaliatory move against London, which has accused the Kremlin of orchestrating a nerve toxin attack on a former Russian double agent and his daughter in southern England.

Escalating a crisis in relations, Russia said it was also shutting down the activities of the British Council, which fosters cultural links between the two countries, and Britain’s consulate-general in St. Petersburg.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said the 23 British diplomats had one week to leave the country.

The move followed Britain’s decision on Wednesday to expel 23 Russian diplomats over the attack in the English city of Salisbury which left former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia Skripal, 33, critically ill in hospital.

Moscow announced the measures on the eve of a presidential election which incumbent Vladimir Putin should comfortably win. Putin has cast his country as a fortress besieged by hostile Western powers with him as its defender, and state media is likely to portray the anti-British move in that context.

The Foreign Ministry said Moscow’s measures were a response to what it called Britain’s “provocative actions and unsubstantiated accusations”. It warned London it stood ready to take further measures in the event of more “unfriendly steps”.

Relations between London and Moscow have crashed to a post-Cold War low over the Salisbury attack, the first known offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since World War Two.

British Prime Minister Theresa May said Britain would consider its next steps with its allies in the coming days.

“We will never tolerate a threat to the life of British citizens and others on British soil from the Russian Government. We can be reassured by the strong support we have received from our friends and allies around the world,” May told her Conservative Party’s spring forum in London.

The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned the British ambassador, Laurie Bristow, to its headquarters on Saturday morning to inform him of the retaliatory measures.

Bristow told reporters afterwards that Britain had only expelled the Russian diplomats after Moscow had failed to explain how the nerve toxin had got to Salisbury.

Britain’s foreign ministry said it had anticipated Russia’s response and that its priority was to look after its staff in Russia and assist those returning home.

“Russia’s response doesn’t change the facts of the matter - the attempted assassination of two people on British soil, for which there is no alternative conclusion other than that the Russian State was culpable,” it said in a statement.

Britain’s National Security Council is due to meet early next week to consider London’s next steps.

Russia’s response was more robust than expected. The closure of the British Council’s Moscow office will sever cultural ties, while that of the consulate-general in St Petersburg will end Britain’s diplomatic presence in Russia’s second city.

Russian news agencies cited politicians in Russia’s upper house of parliament as welcoming the move to close the British Council, alleging it had been used as a cover by British spies.

The British Council said it was profoundly disappointed by Russia’s decision and remained committed to developing long-term people-to-people links with Russia despite the closure.

Russia has complained that Britain has failed to provide any evidence of its involvement in the Salisbury attack and has said it is shocked and bemused by the allegations.

Britain has escalated a war of words with Russia over the incident in recent days. On Friday, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said it was overwhelmingly likely that Russian President Putin himself had made the decision to use a military-grade nerve toxin to strike down Skripal.

Britain, the United States, Germany and France have jointly called on Russia to explain the attack and U.S. President Donald Trump has said it looks as if the Russians were behind it.

Russia has said is open to cooperation with Britain, but has refused Britain’s demands to explain how Novichok, a nerve agent developed by the Soviet military, was used against the Skripals.

Skripal, a former colonel in the GRU who betrayed dozens of Russian agents to British intelligence, and his daughter have been critically ill since March 4, when they were found unconscious on a bench.

A British policeman was also poisoned when he went to help them and remains in a serious but stable condition.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told the Rossiya 24 TV channel on Saturday that the most likely source of the Novichok nerve toxin was Britain itself or the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Sweden or the United States.

Those countries, not Russia, had been intensively testing the substance since the end of the 1990s, Zakharova said. The assertion could not be immediately verified.

The Swedish and Czech foreign ministers and the Slovak foreign ministry all separately rejected the Russian claim.

Russian investigators said on Friday they had opened a criminal investigation into the attempted murder of Yulia Skripal and offered to cooperate with British authorities.

Russia offered some cooperation to British authorities after the 2006 London murder of ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko too.

Britain said the assistance in that case was not enough, and in 2016, an inquiry concluded that Putin had probably approved Litvinenko’s murder, something Moscow denies. </s> Moscow has given two Australian diplomats a week to leave Russia in retaliation for Canberra booting out two of its spies.

In a joint statement on Saturday morning, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said there is no justification for the expulsions by Russia.

"This is a disappointing, although not unexpected, reaction by the Russian Government to the decision of the Australian Government to expel two Russian diplomats working as undeclared intelligence officers," the statement said.

"Australia's action was in concert with 28 other nations expelling a total of 153 Russian diplomats in an unprecedented demonstration of global solidarity with the United Kingdom."

On Wednesday Ms Bishop announced two Russian spies had been given six days to leave Australia, in a show of solidarity with the UK over the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury.

Labor leader Bill Shorten supported the government's decision, calling it an appropriate and proportionate response.

"The Russian Government must understand there are real consequences for engaging in attacks on foreign soil and refusing to tell the truth about them," he said in a joint statement with Labor senator Penny Wong on Saturday.

"We have to act in the way that we believe is in Australia's national interest, and on this occasion that was sending a strong signal that we reject Russia's action and we stand with our friends and allies."

Australia's ambassador to Russia Peter Tesch was among the diplomats summoned to the Russian foreign ministry on Friday to be told of the expulsions.

The diplomatic mission in Moscow has 10 staff.

In total, Russia will expel 59 diplomats from 23 countries following on the expulsion of 23 British and 60 American diplomats earlier in the week.
The Putin administration gives the government of the United Kingdom one month to reduce its diplomatic missions' sizes to mirror those of the Russian ones in Britain.