By James Simons-
Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov has told Britain to expect Russia’s retaliation very soon for its decision to expel 23 Russian diplomats accused of being spies in the UK.
He indicated that the retaliation will be conveyed to British officials first, although state news agency RIA announced that Lavrov had promised to expel British diplomats.
The plan to expel British diplomats in Russia is in response to Theresa May’s decision on Wednesday to give 23 Russians she accused of being spies working under diplomatic cover, a week to leave London. The dramatic step is said to be the biggest expulsion of Russian diplomats since the cold war.
Russia has denied any involvement in the poisoning of Russian intelligence officer, Sergei Skripal, but Downing Street has been clear in its conclusion that the nerve agent used in Salisbury was from Russia.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused London of behaving in a “boorish” way and blamed the problems Britain faces over its exit from the European Union in 2019. Britain has been fuming about the potentially deadly attack on British soil and taking serious steps and measures to counter any attack.
Among those steps are planned by Britain to invest 48 million pounds ($67 million) in a new chemical warfare defense center at its Porton Down military research laboratory, where scientists identified the nerve agent used against Skripal..
The Russian Embassy in London summed up the events o the last 24 hours in a statement they made about current relations which said: “The temperature of Russian-British relations drops to minus 23 but we are not afraid of the cold weather.”
Skripal and his daughter Yulia have been critically ill since they were found unconscious on a bench in the southern English city of Salisbury on March 4. A British policeman who was also poisoned is in a serious but stable condition.
