Salisbury attack: May blames Putin and DEMANDS answers from aggressive Russia by TOMORROW
UK Prime Minister Theresa May has demanded answers from Russian President Vladimir Putin after blaming his country for the attempted murder of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter.
Theresa May: Russia 'highly likely' to be responsible for Skripal
Speaking in the House of Commons, Mrs May accused Russia of an "unlawful use of force".
The former Russian double agent, 66, and his daughter, Yulia, 33, remain critically ill in hospital eight days after they were found collapsed on a bench in the Wiltshire city.
She said: "It is now clear that Mr Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia.
"Based on the positive identification of this chemical agent by world leading experts at the defence, science and technology agency…our knowledge that Russia has previously produced this agent, and would still be capable of doing so, Russia’s record of conducting state-sponsored assassinations, and our assessment that Russia views some defectors as legitimate targets for assassinations, the Government has concluded that it is highly likely that Russia is responsible for the attack against Sergei and Yulia Skripal."“There are therefore only two plausible explanations for what happened in Salisbury.
“Either this was a direct act by the Russian state against our country, or the Russian government lost control of its potentially catastrophically damaging nerve agent, and allowed it to get into the wrong hands.”
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson had summoned the Russian ambassador to Foreign and Commonwealth Office and asked for answers by the end of tomorrow, she said.
She added: “This action has come against a backdrop of pattern of Russian state aggression.”
Mrs May cited Russia's annexation of Crimea, repeated violation of European countrie's air space, and cyber-espionage tactics including what she called "meddling in elections", while she pointed out that during his recent State of the Union address, Mr Putin had showed videos of missile launches including the modelling of attacks on the United States.
"While the extra-judicial killing of terrorists and dissidents outside Russia were given legal sanction by the Russian Parliament in 2006."
Mrs May also compared the incident with the 2006 killing of Russian defector Alexander Linvenenko.
She said: "We saw promises to assist the investigation then, but they resulted in denial and obfuscation – and the stifling of due process and the rule of law. Mr Speaker, following Mr Litvinenko’s death we expelled Russian diplomats, suspended security co-operation, broke off bilateral plans on visas, froze the assets of the suspects and put them on international extradition lists. And these measures remain in place."
Ex-KGB agent: I was warned 'something bad' would happen to Skripal
The PM was speaking after holding talks on the Salisbury nerve agent attack today with the National Security Council (NSC), where ministers will be briefed on the latest intelligence on the incident.
Foreign secretary Boris Johnson has already suggested the incident could lead to a boycott of the 2018 World Cup in Russia in the summer – although he later clarified that this would be limited to the dignataries sent to the event, as opposed to England national team.
Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey is in a serious but stable condition in the Salisbury District Hospital. He is said to be conscious and talking.
The incident is just the latest in a series of apparent assassination attempts of Russian nationals living in this country.
In 2006, Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian Federal Security Service (FSS) agent who had defected to the UK, died, in hospital from a fatal dose of the extremely rare radioactive isotope polonium-210, which was slipped into his drink at a London hotel.
A decade later, an inquest concluded that his death was an FSB operation, which was probably personally approved by Vladimir Putin - but no charges have ever been brought.
We will not tolerate such a brazen attempt to murder innocent civilians on our soil.
Mrs May said Britain had already "led the way" in securing sanctions against the Russian economy.
She added: "We must now stand ready to take much more extensive measures. Should there be no credible response, we will conclude that this action amounts to an unlawful use of force by the Russian State against the United Kingdom. And I will come back to this House and set out the full range of measures that we will take in response."
She concluded: "This attempted murder using a weapons-grade nerve agent in a British town was not just a crime against the Skripals. It was an indiscriminate and reckless act against the United Kingdom, putting the lives of innocent civilians at risk. And we will not tolerate such a brazen attempt to murder innocent civilians on our soil."