Theresa May says UK will 'never tolerate' Russian threat as Putin expels 23 British diplomats
Theresa May has warned the Kremlin that Britain will not be cowed by its decision to expel 23 British diplomats in an escalation of the dispute following the Salisbury attack.
Responding to President Putin's decision to escalate diplomatic tensions, Mrs May told a gathering of Conservative Party members that his antics would not distract from the fact that Russia was "in flagrant breach of international law."
Speaking at the Conservative Spring Forum in London, Mrs May said Russia's response, which includes shutting down the British Council, did not "change the facts of the matter".
After being updated by the British Ambassador in Moscow, Mrs May said: In light of their previous behaviour, we anticipated a response of this kind and we will consider our next steps in the coming days, alongside our allies and partners.
"But Russia’s response doesn’t change the facts of the matter - the attempted assassination of two people on British soil, for which there is no alternative conclusion other than that the Russian State was culpable.
"It is Russia that is in flagrant breach of international law and the Chemical Weapons Convention."
Timeline Sergei Skripal How events have unfolded
Following a week that has seen the city of Salisbury descend into the scene of a major international crime scene, Mrs May also paid tribute to the "bravery" of the emergency services, doctors and investigators who responded to the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
Russia's tit-for-tat expulsion was widely expected. But the shuttering of the UK consulate in St Petersburg and the British Council cultural organisation went beyond Theresa May's measures against Russia, escalating the diplomatic spat.
London may now come under pressure to retaliate more forcefully to Russia.
Undeterred by the Russia's withering response, Mrs May reiterated her intentions to "dismantle" the Russian spy network operating out of the UK and to suspend all planned contact between the UK and the Kremlin.
"We will never tolerate a threat to the life of British citizens and others on British soil from the Russian Government."
The Russian response
The Russian foreign ministry said the move was a “response to the provocative actions of the British side and baseless accusations of the Russian Federation relating to the Salisbury incident”. It warned the UK against "further actions of an unfriendly nature".
The statement cited the “disparity in the consulate facilities of the two countries”: While the UK has consulates in St Petersburg and Yekaterinburg, Russia only has a consulate in Edinburgh.
The move was nonetheless unprecedented. Even when Moscow expelled 755 American diplomatic staff last year in response to US sanctions over election meddling, it did not directly close any of the US consulates in Russia.
Britain and Russia | A history of diplomatic expulsions
The US embassy and three consulates have continued operations on a smaller scale.
“We have no dispute with the Russian people and a very large part of the work of my embassy here in Russia has been, is, to promote those links, those mutually productive links, between Russia and the United Kingdom, but we will always do what is necessary to defend ourselves, our allies and our values against an attack of this sort,” Mr Bristow told journalists in front of the imposing foreign ministry building in Moscow.
The British consulate in St Petersburg covers Russia's second largest city as well as 10 nearby regions. It began operating in 1992 and was officially opened by the Prince of Wales in 1994 during the first visit by a member of the Royal family since the 1917 Bolshevik revolution.
Prince Charles also opened a St Petersburg branch of the British Council during the trip.
Russian spy poisoning | Read more
Why the British Council?
The cultural organisation had come under pressure in recent years following a diplomatic row over the poisoning of another former Russian spy in the UK.
After the UK expelled Russian diplomats over the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, Russia closed the British Council's branches in St Petersburg and Yekaterinburg in 2008.
The group has remained active in Russia despite diplomatic tensions, holding events for a UK-Russia year of culture in 2014 and for the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare's death in 2016. It has several musical events planned this month and has been holding a design competition for a Shakespeare monument in Moscow.
Fears of a second Moscow attack
On Friday, Scotland Yard launched a murder investigation after announcing that a Russian businessman who was found dead at his south London home, had been strangled, sparking fears of a second Moscow sponsored attack on British soil.
Nikolai Glushkov, 68, who was a fierce critic of Vladimir Putin, was granted asylum in the UK after fleeing Russia in 2006.
A former right-hand man of deceased oligarch, Boris Berezovsky, his death came just over a week after Russian spy, Skripal, and his daughter, Yulia, were poisoned by a nerve agent in Salisbury.
He was found dead on Monday by his daughter after failing to turn up to a hearing in the commercial courts in London.
The former boss of the state airline, Aeroflot, Mr Glushkov had told friends he feared he was on a Kremlin hit-list.
A Downing Street spokesman stressed that Mr Glushkov's death was a police matter and that no direct link had been made with the Salisbury poisoning case.
However, news of this latest murder investigation is stoking fears that critics or enemies of Russia and its leader, are no longer safe on British soil.
But Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative leader, said the murder of Mr Glushkov appeared to “fit into a pattern” of violent deaths of enemies of Mr Putin.
He said: "If there is a link between Mr Glushkov's death and the Kremlin it will be further proof that we are dealing with essentially a rogue state which refuses to abide by international rules and has violated UN laws.
"What has been going on is a deliberate attempt to settle Russian scores in the UK.”
A former bodyguard, who worked for Mr Berezovsky, and knew Mr Glushkov well, said his death had all the hallmarks of a state-sponsored assassination.
The France based security expert, who asked to be identified only by his initials, RG, said: “I’m not at all surprised [that a murder investigation has been opened].
12 uk deaths with suspected Russian involvement
“You can easily choke someone in 10 seconds so that they fall into a comatose state and you can then continue strangling them without leaving any other marks on the body. It’s a technique they [the Russians] know well.”
Mr Berezovsky was found hanged in the bathroom of his Surrey home in 2013, with the cause of death being put down to suicide.
But suspicion has always surrounded the circumstances of his death, with many believing he was one of a number of Putin critics who were deliberately silenced.
Britain and Russia: War of words
It came as Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, escalated the war of words with Russia, when he accused Vladimir Putin of personally ordering the nerve agent attack.
Speaking during a visit to the Battle of Britain Bunker museum in Uxbridge on Friday, Mr Johnson said: "Our quarrel is with Putin's Kremlin, and with his decision - and we think it overwhelmingly likely that it was his decision - to direct the use of a nerve agent on the streets of the UK, on the streets of Europe, for the first time since the Second World War."
He said it was "overwhelmingly likely" that the Russian President was behind the attempted murder, a claim described as “unpardonable” by Mr Putin’s spokesman.
Russia's ambassador to London, Alexander Yakovenko, suggested the Government was using the incident to divert attention from Brexit.
He said that Britain had put its weight behind an "anti-Russian campaign" as it tried to establish a new place for itself within Western society after EU withdrawal.
