UK-Russia ties crash to post-Cold War low

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov yesterday said statements by British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson tying Russian President Vladimir Putin to the attack on an ex-double agent were "shocking and unforgiveable" as Moscow's relations with London crashed to a post-Cold War low.

Mentioning Putin in the context of Sergei Skripal's poisoning "is nothing but shocking and unforgiveable behaviour from the point of view of diplomacy," Peskov said.

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Speaking of Putin, Johnson yesterday said: "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."

But Peskov repeated that "Russia has nothing to do with this story," in comments carried by Russian news agencies.

Skripal and his daughter Yulia are in critical condition after being exposed to a Soviet-designed nerve agent on March 4 in the English city of Salisbury, reported AFP.

Russia has denied any involvement, cast Britain as a post-colonial power unsettled by Brexit, and even suggested London fabricated the attack in an attempt to whip up anti-Russian hysteria.

Asked by a Reuters reporter in the Kazakh capital if Russia planned to expel British diplomats from Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov smiled and said: "We will, of course."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia could announce its response at any minute.

Britain, the United States, Germany and France jointly called on Russia on Thursday to explain the attack. US President Donald Trump said it looked as though the Russians were behind it.

A German government spokesman called the attack "an immense, appalling event". Chancellor Angela Merkel said an EU summit next week would discuss the issue, in the first instance to seek clarity, and that any boycott of the soccer World Cup, which Russia is hosting in June and July, was not an immediate priority.

INDEPENDENT VERIFICATION

Russia has refused Britain's demands to explain how Novichok, a nerve agent developed by the Soviet military, was used to strike down Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, in the southern English city of Salisbury.

Britain has written to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague, which monitors compliance with the global convention outlawing the use of such weapons, to obtain independent verification of the substance used.

Skripal, a former colonel in the GRU who betrayed dozens of Russian agents to British intelligence, and his daughter have been critically ill since March 4, when they were found unconscious on a bench.

A British policeman was also poisoned when he went to help them is, and is in a serious but stable condition.

British investigators are working on the theory that an item of clothing or cosmetics or a gift in the luggage of Skripal's daughter was impregnated with the toxin, and then opened in Skripal's house in Salisbury, the Daily Telegraph said.

President Vladimir Putin, a former KGB spy who is poised to win a fourth term in an election on Sunday, has so far only said publicly that Britain should get to the bottom of what has happened.