Britain has announced it is expelling 23 Russian diplomats after a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy — the single biggest such expulsion since the Cold War.
Prime Minister Theresa May told the House of Commons on Wednesday that Russia has expressed “disdain” for Britain’s wish for an explanation into the attempted murder of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. She said that Russia’s actions “represent an unlawful use of force.”
May said the Russian diplomats have a week to leave Britain.
She also announced a range of economic and diplomatic measures, including asking the royal family and ministers not attend the soccer World Cup in Russia in the summer.
Britain will also suspend high-level bilateral contact with Russia and revoke an invitation to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to visit, May said, adding that Russia was “culpable” for the poisoning.
Russia has nothing to do with the alleged poisoning of Russian ex-double agent Sergei Skripal, the Kremlin said. Moscow will not accept any groundless threats or ultimatums, it added.
“Moscow’s position [on the Skripal case] is well known… Moscow had nothing to do with the incident that took place in the UK,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.
Russia said it would not respond to the ultimatum set by UK Prime Minister Theresa May, who demanded an explanation for the “poisoning” of the 66-year-old Skripal and his daughter. May's deadline expired on Wednesday at midnight.
Peskov added that Moscow remains open for “cooperation in the investigation of the case.”
“Unfortunately, we haven’t been met with any reciprocity from the British side,” he concluded.
“Unfortunately, we haven’t been met with any reciprocity from the British side,” he concluded.
On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called for an internationally accepted procedure in the case, and refused to respond to May’s ultimatum. “As soon as the rumors came up that the poisoning of Skripal involved a Russian-produced agent, which almost the entire English leadership has been fanning up, we sent an official request for access to this compound so that our experts could test it in accordance with the Chemical Weapons Convention [CWC],” he said at the time.
The Russian Embassy in London called the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats announced by UK Prime Minister Theresa May over the poisoning of former intelligence officer Sergei Skripal "unacceptable, short-sighted and unjustified."
In a statement, the Embassy confirmed that the diplomats had been declared persona non grata, adding that London was to blame for the harm caused to Russian-UK relations by this "hostile step."
The Russian Embassy's reaction followed UK Prime Minister Theresa May's address to the House of Commons, where she announced a response to the alleged attack on Skripal.
Reiterating a claim she made Monday about Russia's alleged culpibility in the Skripal case, the prime minister accused Russia of an "unlawful use of force against the United Kingdom," saying this crime was part of a well established pattern of "Russian state aggression" in Europe, and accused Moscow of "sarcasm, contempt and defiance" in its response to London's ultimatum to provide further information.
The prime minister stressed that the London and its allies will coordinate its actions, and welcomed support received from NATO and the EU. A NATO Council meeting will be held to discuss the matter on Thursday. The UK is also pushing for a debate at the UN on the Skripal case, and has asked the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to to help verify its claims against Moscow.
Syria's Permanent Representative to the UN has reiterated that Damascus condemns any use of chemical weapons and that it remains committed to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
Bassam Sabbagh, Syria's Permanent Envoy to the UN, has said that the terrorist organizations may use chemical weapons against the Syrian people so they may blame Damascus, which Sabbagh said would give the US military a pretext to stage more attacks.
"Syria has confidential information that the states which sponsor those terrorist organizations will exploit the convening of the executive council of The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to make their, he was quoted by the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) as saying.
He emphasized that allegations of Syrian authorities' use of chemical weapons "always coincides with its political and military achievements, and that they constitute a US bid to stop the collapse of the terrorists," according to SANA.
In the first of what will be many tit-for-tat retaliations now that the "cooperation" game-theoretical regime between Russia and the UK has broken down, moments ago the Russian embassy responded to the UK's expulsion of 23 diplomats.
In a statement it said:
"On 14 of March Russian Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko was summoned to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office where he was informed that 23 diplomats were declared personae non gratae."We consider this hostile action as totally unacceptable, unjustified and shortsighted.All the responsibility for the deterioration of the Russia-UK relationship lies with the current political leadership of Britain.
Statement of the Russian Embassy https://t.co/UvisUyqzMw pic.twitter.com/PpvXxN03nx— Russian Embassy, UK (@RussianEmbassy) March 14, 2018
Separately, RIA Novosti reported that the Russian embassy in the UK - whose staff is being expelled - called the move "unacceptable, unjustified and shortsighted."
As a reminder, the Kremlin has yet to retaliate in deed, instead of just verbally, with its own expulsion of UK diplomats, a move which will be coming shortly, prompting even more retaliation by the UK which warned earlier may next expel the Russian ambassador, leading in a total collapse of diplomatic relations between the two nations.
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