Theresa May expels 23 Russian diplomats in response to spy poisoning

 

 Theresa May has expelled 23 Russian diplomats from the UK in retaliation for the Salisbury nerve agent attack. They have just one week to leave the country, the Prime Minister has told the House of Commons. After the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, four Russian diplomats were expelled from the UK, the PM said. In her statement she also said that the UK was suspending high-level contacts with Russia.

 Dignitaries, including members of the royal family, will not attend this summer’s World Cup, she said.

 May told MPs that Russia had responded to her demand for an explanation of events in Salisbury with ‘sarcasm, contempt and defiance’. ‘Their response has demonstrated complete disdain for the gravity of these events,’ she said. Russia had failed to provide any ‘credible’ explanation of events and of why it has ‘an undeclared chemical weapons programme in contravention of international law’, she said. The expulsion of the 23 diplomats, identified as undeclared intelligence officers, is the biggest single expulsion for over 30 years, May said.


 She added it would degrade Russian intelligence capabilities in Britain for years to come. ‘We will freeze Russian state assets wherever we have evidence that they may be used to threaten the life or property of UK nationals or residents,’ said May. ‘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.

 ‘There is no place for these people – or their money – in our country.’ The Russian Embassy said the expulsion was ‘unacceptable, unjustified and shortsighted’. May said the government would ‘urgently develop proposals’ for new legislative powers to ‘harden our defences against all forms of hostile state activity’.


 She said: ‘This will include the addition of a targeted power to detain those suspected of hostile state activity at the UK border. ‘This power is currently only permitted in relation to those suspected of terrorism.’ The PM has also asked Home Secretary Amber Rudd to consider whether there is a need for new counter-espionage powers to ‘clamp down on the full spectrum of hostile activities of foreign agents in our country’. Yesterday, Russian exile Nikolai Glushkov was found dead in his home in Kingston, London, with ‘strangulation marks’ on his neck. Glushkov was friends with an oligarch that fell out with Vladimir Putin. She said Britain would make ‘full use’ of existing powers to monitor and track those visiting the UK who could be engaged in activity threatening Britain’s security.


This will include increased checks on private flights, customs and freight traffic, she said. Former spy Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were found unconscious on a bench in the city of Salisbury on March 4 and remain in hospital in a critical condition. May has said the pair were attacked with Novichok, a Soviet-era military-grade nerve agent. She had asked Moscow to explain whether it was responsible for the attack or had lost control of stocks of the highly dangerous substance. Russia has denied any involvement.