Russian retaliation against the United Kingdom over Prime Minister Theresa May’s accusation of an alleged assassination attempt “will not be long in coming,” the Russian Foreign Ministry promised.
“[T]he British Government is again seeking to launch a groundless anti-Russian campaign,” the Foreign Ministry said in a Wednesday bulletin. “Needless to say, our response measures will not be long in coming.”
May expelled 23 Russian diplomats from the United Kingdom to punish Russia for the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer who worked as a double agent for the United Kingdom. Russia has denied involvement and rejected May’s demand for an explanation of the incident by Wednesday.
“This represents an unlawful use of force by the Russian State against the United Kingdom,” May said Wednesday.
Russia accused May of using a “false pretext” to degrade relations between the two sides. “We believe it is absolutely unacceptable and unworthy of the British Government to seek to further seriously aggravate relations in pursuit of its unseemly political ends, having announced a whole series of hostile measures, including the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats from the country,” the Foreign Ministry said.
Skripal was released to the UK in 2010 as part of a spy swap, six years after being convicted of treason. He and his daughter are in critical condition after being poisoned by “a military-grade nerve agent,” May told British lawmakers on Monday, when she first blamed Russia for the incident. May set a Wednesday deadline for an explanation, but Russian officials rejected that ultimatum and accused her of short-circuiting the established mechanism for investigating the use of chemical weapons.
“You know, this kind of conceit shows in almost all the steps London has been taking — not only in this particular case,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.
May maintained that she gave Russia a clear opportunity to respond to the poisoning incident over the last two days.
“But their response has demonstrated complete disdain for the gravity of these events,” she said. “They have provided no credible explanation that could suggest they lost control of their nerve agent. No explanation as to how this agent came to be used in the United Kingdom; no explanation as to why Russia has an undeclared chemical weapons program in contravention of international law. Instead they have treated the use of a military grade nerve agent in Europe with sarcasm, contempt and defiance.”
