Russia responded quid pro quo to the wave of Western expulsions of Russian diplomats over the poisoning of an ex-spy and his daughter in Britain.
Russia responded quid pro quo on Thursday to the wave of
Western expulsions of Russian diplomats over the poisoning of an ex-spy and his
daughter in Britain, while a hospital treating the pair said the woman is
improving rapidly and is out of critical condition.
Sergei and Yulia Skripal were found unconscious and
critically ill in the English city of Salisbury on March 4. British authorities
blamed Russia for poisoning them with a military-grade nerve agent, accusations
Russia has vehemently denied.
Two dozen countries, including the US, many EU nations and the
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), have ordered more than 150 Russian
diplomats out this week in a show of solidarity with Britain — a massive action
unseen even at the height of the Cold War.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a news
conference on Thursday that Moscow will expel the same number of diplomats from
each of those countries in retaliation.
Lavrov added that just as he was making the statement, US
Ambassador Jon Huntsman was invited to the Foreign Ministry, where he was
handed notice that Russia is responding quid pro quo to the US decision to
order 60 Russian diplomats out.
Lavrov said Moscow will also retaliate to the US decision to
shut the Russian consulate in Seattle by closing the US consulate in St
Petersburg.
The Foreign Ministry said the US diplomats, including 58
diplomats from the US Embassy in Moscow and two from the US consulate in
Yekaterinburg, must leave Russia by April 5. It added that the US must leave
the consulate in St Petersburg no later than Saturday.
The ministry warned that in case the US takes further
“hostile actions” against Russian missions, Russia will respond in
kind.
“We invite the US authorities who are encouraging a
slanderous campaign against our country to come back to their senses and stop
thoughtless actions to destroy bilateral relations,” it said.
Lavrov emphasized that the expulsions followed a
“brutal pressure” from the US and Britain who forced their allies to
“follow the anti-Russian course”.
He also noted that the job of the international chemical
weapons watchdog is to determine what chemical agent was used to poison Skripal
and his daughter, not verify the British conclusions.
Lavrov said that Moscow called a meeting Monday of the
secretariat of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to
discuss the case.
Meanwhile, Salisbury National Health Service Trust, which
oversees the hospital where the Skripals are being treated, said on Thursday that
33-year-old Yulia is “improving rapidly and is no longer in a critical
condition. Her condition is now stable.”
“She has responded well to treatment, but continues to
receive expert clinical care 24 hours a day,” said Dr Christine Blanshard,
medical director at Salisbury District Hospital.
Sergei Skripal, 66, remains in critical condition, the
hospital said.
Lavrov said that Russia would seek consular access to Yulia
Skripalr now that she regained consciousness.
Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence
officer, was imprisoned after he sold secrets to British intelligence. He was
released in a 2010 spy swap and moved to Britain.
Britain says he and his daughter, who was visiting from
Russia, were poisoned with a nerve agent developed in Soviet times and that it
must have come from Russia.
Police say they were likely exposed to the poison on the
door of Sergei Skripal’s suburban house in Salisbury, where the highest
concentration of the chemical has been found.
About 250 British counterterrorism officers are working on
the investigation, retracing the Skripal’s movements to uncover how the poison
was delivered. They have searched a pub, a restaurant and a cemetery, and on
Thursday cordoned off a children’s playground near the Skripal home.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said
Thursday that Britain’s allegation of Russian involvement in the poisoning was
a “swindle” and an “international provocation”. She said Russia
continued to demand access to investigation materials, which Britain has
refused to share.
Zakharova charged that Britain, the US, the Czech Republic
and Sweden all have researched the nerve agent that London said was used to
poison the Skripals.
She said that the Western research into the class of nerve
agent, known as Novichok, was reflected in numerous open source documents of
NATO members. Britain and its allies have dismissed previous Russian claims
that they possessed that type of nerve agent.
