LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will expel 23 Russian diplomats in retaliation for the nerve agent attack on a former Russian double agent, Prime Minister Theresa May said on Wednesday.

“Under the Vienna Convention, the United Kingdom will now expel 23 Russian diplomats who have been identified as undeclared intelligence officers,” May told parliament. “They have just one week to leave.”

May said the biggest expulsions from London in 30 years would degrade Russian intelligence capabilities in Britain for years to come.

“We 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,” May said. </s> iStock/Thinkstock(MOSCOW) — Russia expelled 23 British diplomats on Saturday in a tit-for-tat response to the U.K.’s expulsion of 23 Russian embassy staff over the nerve-agent attack in England last week.

Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement it had summoned U.K. ambassador Laurie Bristow to inform him that the 23 diplomats were now “persona non grata” and had a week to leave. The ministry said it was also closing the British consulate in Saint Petersburg and withdrawing the right of the British Council, a body that promotes British culture and language, to operate in Russia.

The Russian foreign ministry said it was taking the measures in response to what it called the U.K.’s “provocative actions and unfounded accusations” over the poisoning case.

The expulsion marks the latest turn in a confrontation between Russia and the U.K. following the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergey Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the southern English town of Salisbury. The U.K. has accused Russia of bearing responsibility for the attack, which British officials say involved a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed secretly by Russia. British Prime Minister Theresa May has also cut off high-level contacts with Russia and has been trying to build support among the U.K.’s allies for potential fresh sanctions to punish Russia.

Russia has denied the U.K.’s allegations, accusing Britain of using the incident in a campaign to smear Moscow. Russian officials have increasingly begun suggesting the attack could have been staged by Britain itself. On Saturday, Russia’s envoy to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Alexander Shigulin alleged to the news agency Interfax the “most likely” source of the nerve agent was Britain or the United States. He did not offer evidence for that assertion.

U.K. officials have said a nerve agent from Russia’s so-called Novichok program was used to target Skripal. First revealed by a Russian whistleblower in the early 1990s, the Novichoks were part of a secret Russian effort to develop a new generation of more powerful and harder to detect nerve agents.

Russia has now denied that any program under the name Novichok ever existed, despite the evidence presented two decades ago by the Russian scientist Vil Mirzayanov, who revealed its existence after becoming concerned it violated Russia’s commitments to the Chemical Weapons Convention. Russian officials had previously said that Russia had destroyed the Novichok weapons when it had dismantled its chemical arsenal, which was completed last year.

The chairman of the U.K. parliament’s foreign affairs committee said that Russia’s decision to expel the U.K. diplomats was “hardly surprising.”

“This is really absolutely symbolic and typical of a Russian Federation that has used lying and propaganda as a means of warfare and is now repeating its style,” Conservative party Member of Parliament Tom Tugendhat said on BBC Radio 4.

“It’s a great shame for the Russian people that they’re closing the British Council, which has done an awful lot to educate Russian people in English language and help them get jobs and opportunities around the world,” he added.

On Friday, the U.K.’s foreign minister, Boris Johnson, blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin personally for the attack, telling an audience, “We think it overwhelmingly likely that it was his decision to direct the use of a nerve agent on the streets of the U.K., on the streets of Europe, for the first time since the second World War.”

The Skripals remain in a critical condition following the attack that also poisoned a British police officer. The officer is reportedly now in stable condition.

Sergey Skripal worked as a spy for Britain’s MI6 agency while serving in Russian military intelligence in the late 1990s. He was arrested and convicted of treason by Russia, but was pardoned and exchanged in a spy swap in 2010, after which he lived the U.K. The case has drawn obvious parallels with the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, a dissident former Russian intelligence officer who was killed with a radioactive poison in London in 2006. A British public inquiry found Putin had “probably” ordered that assassination.

Meanwhile, U.K. police have also opened a murder investigation in the death of another Russian exile living in Britain. Nikolai Glushkov was found dead at his home this week. Police said Glushkov died as a result of a “compression of the neck,” suggesting he may have been strangled.

Glushkov was an associate of oligarch and Putin foe Boris Berezovsky, who was also found dead in 2013, apparently having hung himself, though a coroner recorded an open verdict. Glushkov was granted political asylum in London after he was released from prison in Russia in 2004, where he had been jailed over fraud charges.

London’s Metropolitan police counter-terrorism command has said there is no suggestion that Glushkov’s death is connected to the poisoning attack, but that they are investigating because “of associations Mr Glushkov is believed to have had.” Detectives are keeping an “open mind” about the death, police said. </s> The UK will expel 23 Russian diplomats from the country after concluding that the Russian state is responsible for the attempted murder of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the English city of Salisbury.

This will be the single biggest expulsion of Russian diplomats in over 30 years, Prime Minister Theresa May said Wednesday. The 23 concerned, who May said had been identified as undeclared intelligence agents, will have only one week to leave.

"For those who seek to do us harm, my message is simple. You are not welcome here," she said in a statement to the House of Commons following a meeting of Britain's National Security Council.

The expulsion of diplomats will "fundamentally degrade" Russian intelligence capabilities in Britain for years, May said.

The Skripals are critically ill in hospital after being exposed to the nerve agent, known as Novichok and developed in Russia, on March 4. Thirty-eight other people in Salisbury were seen by medics after the exposure. One, a police officer, remains hospitalized.

May said Monday it was highly likely that Moscow was behind the poisoning. The Russian ambassador to the UK was summoned to the UK Foreign Office to explain whether the attack was directed by Russian authorities, or whether Moscow had lost control of the nerve agent.

She demanded that Moscow respond by midnight Tuesday, London time, to the UK government's conclusion that Russia was linked to the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia on a park bench in Salisbury in southern England.

But Moscow -- which has repeatedly dismissed any accusations of involvement in the attack -- ignored the deadline.

Addressing lawmakers Wednesday, May said it had been right to give Russia the opportunity to answer the allegations, "but their response has demonstrated complete disdain for the gravity of these events."

The Russians had provided no credible explanation, she said, leading to "no alternative conclusion" other than that the Russian state was culpable for the attempted murder of the Skripals and for threatening the lives of other British citizens.

"This represents an unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom," she said. "And as I set out on Monday it has taken place against the backdrop of a well-established pattern of Russian state aggression across Europe and beyond.

"It must therefore be met with a full and robust response -- beyond the actions we have already taken since the murder of Mr. Litvinenko and to counter this pattern of Russian aggression elsewhere," she added, referring to a different ex-Russian spy -- Alexander Litvinenko -- who was poisoned in London in 2006.

Britain has called for an "urgent meeting of the UN Security Council" to "update members on the investigation into the nerve agent attack in Salisbury," the UK Foreign Office tweeted.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said earlier Wednesday that there had been no progress in his country's communications with Britain.

Speaking alongside his Turkish counterpart in Moscow, Lavrov accused UK authorities of "political theater" and trying to mislead the international community rather than submitting an official request to Russia in accordance with the Chemical Weapons Convention. Russia is ready to respond to an official request within 10 days, in line with its obligations, once it is made, Lavrov said.

Lavrov also said that Russia had no motive in targeting the specific individuals concerned and that all allegations were based on speculation.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov similarly rejected "unfounded accusations" of Russian involvement in the attack as he spoke with reporters on a conference call.

"Moscow stands open to cooperation in the investigation of these events. Unfortunately, this is not reciprocated by the British," Peskov said, as he urged other countries to use their "common sense" as they consider whether there is any proof to the claims. </s> Russia will expel 23 British diplomats in a tit-for-tat reaction to Theresa May’s response to the nerve agent attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal.

The country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced it had ordered the diplomats to leave within a week, moments after Britain’s ambassador to Russia Laurie Bristow left the ministry in Moscow.

Other measures included closing the British Council and scrapping an agreement to reopen the British consulate in St Petersburg, while the country indicated it could take further action should there be what it called more “unfriendly” moves, the Associated Press reported.

Mr Bristow, speaking to reporters after being summoned, said the UK would “always do what is necessary to defend ourselves, our allies and our values against an attack of this sort”.

It comes after NHS England said Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, the police officer exposed to the Novichok agent in Salisbury, is no longer in a critical condition.

But Mr Skripal, 66, the Russian ex-spy who was the target of the attack, and his daughter Yulia, 33, remain critical but stable in hospital.

Russia has opened its own criminal investigation into the attempted murder of Yulia, a Russian citizen, and also Nikolai Glushkov, a Russian exile Scotland Yard said died from “compression to the neck” at his home in New Malden, south-west London.

British police are not linking his case with the Salisbury attack.

Speaking to the Russian state-funded RT television network, the ambassador denounced Britain’s decision to expel 23 diplomats as “unacceptable and unjustified”.

Sunday is set to mark two weeks since the incident. </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> British Prime Minister Theresa May told lawmakers on Monday that it was "highly likely" Russia was behind the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the southern city of Salisbury.

If evidence eventually proves Moscow directly ordered the poisoning, May said the government would consider the attack an "unlawful use of force" on British territory.

Read more: British diners told to wash possessions after ex-spy poisoning

What May said:

The Russian government either ordered the attack, or it had lost control of the military-grade, Russian-produced chemical nerve agent Novichok that was used in the attack.

May said Moscow had until Tuesday evening to explain its Novichok program to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

The government has summoned the Russian ambassador in London to explain whether Moscow was directly responsible for the attack.

If there is "no credible response" by the end of Tuesday, the government would discuss retaliatory measures with the British Parliament.

Britain cannot have a normal relationship with Russia. "We will not tolerate such a brazen attempt to murder innocent civilians on our soil," May said, adding: "There can be no question of business as usual with Russia."

Read more: Spy assassinations — The top 5 deadly poisons

What were the reactions?

"We have full confidence in the UK's investigation and its assessment that Russia was likely responsible for the nerve agent attack that took place in Salisbury last week," said US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. "We agree that those responsible — both those who committed the crime and those who ordered it — must face appropriately serious consequences.

"It appears that it clearly came from Russia. Whether it came from Russia with the Russian government's knowledge is not known to me at this point," Tillerson added.

Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for Russia's Foreign Ministry, dismissed May's speech as a "provocation," according to Russian news agencies. She added: "It is a circus show in the British parliament."

The Foreign Ministry also said in a statement that British media and politicians were using the poison attack to discredit Moscow ahead of the 2018 soccer world cup in Russia. The British, it said, "cannot forgive Russia for obtaining the right to host the 2018 World Cup in an honest competition."

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the use of military-grade nerve agent was "horrendous and completely unacceptable." He added: "This incident is of great concern to NATO."

Read more: UK promises retaliation for 'brazen' chemical attack on Russian ex-spy

The attack: Sixty-six year old Sergei Skripal was found with his 33-year-old daughter, Yulia, slumped on a bench in the southern English town of Salisbury on March 4. The unconscious pair was rushed to hospital where they remain in critical but stable condition. The nerve agent used to poison the pair also affected a policeman who found them. The officer is conscious but also remains in critical condition.

Who is Sergei Skripal? Skripal was a colonel in Russia's military intelligence service, the GRU, before he was found guilty of betraying Russian agents to MI6, Britain's foreign intelligence service. In 2010, he arrived in Britain as part of a spy swap deal between London and Moscow.

A history of political poisonings Sergei Skripal Sergei Skripal, a 66-year-old former Russian spy, was found unconscious on a bench outside a shopping center in the British city of Salisbury after he was exposed to what police said was an unknown substance. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the situation "tragic" but said, "We don't have information about what could be the cause, what this person did."

A history of political poisonings Kim Jong Nam The estranged half-brother of Kim Jong Un was killed on February 13, 2018 at Kuala Lumpur airport after two women allegedly smeared the chemical nerve agent VX on his face. In February, a Malaysian court heard that Kim Jong Nam had been carrying a dozen vials of antidote for the deadly nerve agent VX in his backpack at the time of the poisoning.

A history of political poisonings Alexander Litvinenko Former Russian spy Litvinenko had worked for the Federal Security Service (FSB) before he defected to Britain, where he became a journalist and wrote two books of accusations against the FSB and Putin. He became ill after meeting with two former KGB officers and died on November 23, 2006. A government inquiry found he was killed by radioactive polonium-210 which it alleged the men put in his tea.

A history of political poisonings Viktor Kalashnikov In November 2010, doctors at Berlin's Charité hospital discovered high levels of mercury had been found in a Russian dissident couple working in Berlin. Kalashnikov, a freelance journalist and former KGB colonel, had 3.7 micrograms of mercury per litre of blood, while his wife had 56 micrograms. A safe level is 1-3 micrograms. Viktor reportedly told German magazine Focus that "Moscow poisoned us."

A history of political poisonings Viktor Yushchenko Ukrainian opposition leader Yushchenko became sick in September 2004 and was diagnosed with acute pancreatis caused by a viral infection and chemical substances. The illness resulted in facial disfigurement, with pockmarks, bloating and jaundice. Doctors said the changes to his face were from chloracne, which is a result of dioxin poisoning. Yushchenko claimed government agents poisoned him.

A history of political poisonings Khaled Meshaal On September 25, 1997, Israel's intelligence agency attempted to assassinate Hamas leader Meshaal, under orders from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Two agents sprayed a poisonous substance into Meshaal's ear as he walked into the Hamas offices in Amman, Jordan. The assassination attempt was unsuccessful and not long afterward the two Israeli agents were captured.

A history of political poisonings Georgi Markov In 1978, Bulgarian dissident Markov was waiting at a bus stop after a shift at the BBC when he felt a sharp jab in his thigh. He turned to see a man picking up an umbrella. A small bump appeared where he felt the jab and four days later he died. An autopsy found he'd been killed by a small pellet containing a 0.2-milligram dose of ricin. Many believe the poisoned dart was fired from the umbrella.

A history of political poisonings Grigori Rasputin On December 30, 1916, mystic and spiritual healer Rasputin arrived at Yusupov Palace in St Petersburg at the invitation Prince Felix Yusupov. There, Prince Yusupov offered Rasputin cakes laced with potassium cyanide but he just kept eating them. Yusupov then gave him wine in a cyanide-laced wine glasses, but still Rasputin continued to drink. With the poison failing, Rasputin was shot and killed. Author: Louisa Wright



Every evening at 1830 UTC, DW editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here. </s> British diplomats, who had been declared personae non gratae by Russian authorities as a response to the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats from the UK, have left the Embassy in Moscow, a Sputnik correspondent reported.

The remaining embassy staff said goodbye to their departing colleagues with applause.

READ MORE: UK Diplomats Declared 'Persona Non Grata' by Russia to Leave This Week — Source

The UK has decided to banish Russian diplomats as part of anti-Russia sanctions which were declared by the UK Prime Minister Theresa May who explained her decision by accusing Moscow of poisoning the former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury. The Russian Foreign Ministry has denied all the allegations and demanded the UK Foreign Office permit a joint investigation into the case. It has announced that 23 UK diplomats would be expelled from Russia, while the operation of the British Council will be ceased in the country.

Russian Ambassador to the UK Alexander Yakovenko has commented on the current situation, saying that Britain has not provided any proof of Russia's alleged involvement in the nerve agent attack.

He has suggested that the samples of the so-called Novichok nerve gas could have already been in the laboratory located just miles away from Salisbury.

The former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found unconscious in a shopping center in Salisbury on March 4. Both of them remain in critical condition. </s> LONDON – Russia will “certainly” expel British diplomats in a tit-for-tat response to Britain’s decision to send 23 Russians home over the poisoning of a former spy, Russia’s foreign minister said Thursday.

Sergey Lavrov, speaking in remarks carried by the RIA Novosti news agency, said the move would come “soon,” but added that Moscow would inform London through official channels before publicly announcing its countermeasures.

British and Russian officials traded barbs as diplomatic relations plunged to Cold War-era levels of iciness following the nerve-agent poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. Britain blames Russia for the March 4 attack, which has left the pair in critical condition and a police officer seriously ill.

U.K. Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson called relations between the two countries “exceptionally chilly” and said Russia should “go away and shut up.”

Lavrov said British accusations of Moscow’s involvement are intended to distract public attention from the U.K’s troubled exit from the European Union.

He argued that “boorish and unfounded” accusations against Russia “reflect the hopeless situation the British government has found itself in when it can’t meet the obligations given to the public in connection with exit from the EU.”

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said Russia targeted Skripal — a former Russian intelligence officer convicted of spying for Britain — to make it clear that those who defy the Russian state deserve to “choke on their own 30 pieces of silver.”

Johnson told the BBC there was a message in the “smug, sarcastic response” from Moscow after Britain demanded an explanation for how a nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union’s Novichok program was used on the Skripals in the English city of Salisbury. Johnson said the Russian government wants “simultaneously to deny it and yet at the same time to glory in it.”

“The reason they’ve chosen this nerve agent is to show that it’s Russia, and to show people in their agencies who might think of defecting or of supporting another way of life, of believing in an alternative set of values, that Russia will take revenge,” Johnson said.

British Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday expelled 23 Russian diplomats, severed high-level contacts and vowed both open and covert action following the attack.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov wouldn’t reveal how Russia will retaliate, but said the decision will come from President Vladimir Putin, “and there is no doubt that he will choose the option that best reflects Russian interests.”

“We are worried by this situation” and will work patiently to express Russia’s position on the international stage, Peskov said.

May announced the sanctions against Russia in a speech to the House of Commons after Moscow ignored a deadline to explain its links to the attack on the Skripals.

As a result of the suspension of high-level contacts with Russia, Britain cancelled an invitation for Lavrov to visit. British ministers and royals also won’t attend the World Cup soccer tournament this summer in Russia, May said.

May also said Britain would clamp down on murky Russian money and strengthen the government’s ability to impose sanctions on those who abuse human rights, though she gave few details.

Britain is also trying to build international consensus for a unified Western response, saying the attack in Salisbury is just the latest example of Russia’s disregard for international norms on the rule of law. U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron are among the world leaders who have expressed solidarity with Britain.

Macron said Thursday that “everything seems to indicate Russia’s responsibility,” and France would take measures in coming days in response to the poisoning.

Angela Charlton in Moscow and Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed </s> The prime minister has welcomed new sanctions the US has imposed on Russia over its use of a nerve agent in Salisbury.

The State Department said the sanctions will be imposed on Russia because it used a chemical weapon in violation of international law.

Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned by novichok, a military-grade nerve agent, in Salisbury in March.

Police think the novichok was sprayed or smeared on their front doorknob with a perfume bottle.

They believe the bottle was then dropped somewhere in the city, where Charlie Rowley picked it up and gave it to his partner Dawn Sturgess, who died after apparently spritzing it on her wrist.

Britain has accused Russia of being behind the attack, which the Kremlin vehemently denies.

Following a 15-day congressional notification period, the sanctions will take effect on or around August 22, according to a statement from the State Department.

Responding to new US sanctions on Russia, a Downing Street spokesman said: ‘The UK welcomes this further action by our US allies.

‘The strong international response to the use of a chemical weapon on the streets of Salisbury sends an unequivocal message to Russia that its provocative, reckless behaviour will not go unchallenged.’

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The United Kingdom expels 23 Russian diplomats and cuts off all top-level ties with Russia as punishment for a reported attack with the Novichok military-grade nerve agent, an attack which Prime Minister Theresa May described as an "unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom".