Russia condemns Theresa May's 'circus show' over poison spy attack probe
THERESA May’s statement demanding answers from Russia over the attack on a former Russian spy in Salisbury have been branded a “circus show” by Putin’s foreign ministry.
Theresa May: Russia 'highly likely' to be responsible for Skripal
Theresa May said it was "highly likely" that Moscow was responsible for poisoning former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia on March 4.
Mrs May’s comments were politically motivated and based on a provocation, Russian news agencies reported.
The TASS news agency quoted Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying: "It is a circus show in the British parliament.
"The conclusion is obvious: It's another political information campaign, based on a provocation."
It is a circus show in the British parliament
Speaking in the House of Commons, the Prime Minister 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.
Mrs May said: "There are only two plausible explanations for what happened in Salisbury on March 4.
"Either this was a direct action 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 hands of others."
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson summoned the Russian ambassador to the Foreign Office this afternoon.
Mr Johnson asked him "to explain which of these two possibilities it is, and therefore to account for how this Russian-produced nerve agent could have been deployed in Salisbury against Mr Skripal and his daughter".
The Foreign Secretary told the ambassador, Alexander Yakovenko, that Moscow must "immediately provide full and complete disclosure of the novichok programme to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons", said Mrs May.
The Foreign Secretary requested a response from the Russian Government by the end of Tuesday.
A British policeman who was one of the first to attend to the stricken spy was also affected by the nerve agent. He is now conscious in a serious but stable condition, police said.
Mrs May said: "On Wednesday we will consider in detail the response from the Russian state.
"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.”
Mrs May said the poisoning took place "against a backdrop of a well-established pattern of Russian state aggression" and she said Britain was ready to take "much more extensive measures" against Russia than in the past.
Earlier today Russian President Vladimir Putin brushed off a question about the affair, saying British authorities should first "get to the bottom of things," the BBC's Moscow correspondent wrote on Twitter.