{"id":56807,"date":"2018-03-17T16:26:46","date_gmt":"2018-03-17T11:26:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tns.world\/?p=56807"},"modified":"2018-03-17T16:26:46","modified_gmt":"2018-03-17T11:26:46","slug":"russia-expels-23-british-diplomats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tns.world\/?p=56807","title":{"rendered":"Russia expels 23 British diplomats"},"content":{"rendered":"

MOSCOW March 17 (TNS):<\/strong> Russia expelled 23 British diplomats on Saturday in a carefully calibrated retaliatory move against London, which has accused the Kremlin of orchestrating a nerve toxin attack on a former Russian double agent and his daughter in southern England.<\/p>\n

Escalating a crisis in relations, Russia said it was also shutting down the activities of the British Council, which fosters cultural links between the two countries, and Britain\u2019s consulate-general in St. Petersburg.<\/p>\n

The Russian Foreign Ministry said it was giving the 23 British diplomats one week to leave the country.<\/p>\n

The move, which was tougher than expected, followed Britain\u2019s decision on Thursday to expel 23 Russian diplomats over the attack in the English city of Salisbury which left former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia Skripal, 33, critically ill in hospital.<\/p>\n

Moscow announced the measures on the eve of a presidential election which incumbent Vladimir Putin should comfortably win. Putin has cast his country as a fortress besieged by hostile Western powers with him as its defender, and state media is likely to portray the anti-British move in that context.<\/p>\n

The Foreign Ministry said Moscow\u2019s measures were a response to what it called Britain\u2019s \u201cprovocative actions and groundless accusations\u201d. It warned London it stood ready to take further measures in the event of more \u201cunfriendly steps\u201d.<\/p>\n

Relations between London and Moscow have crashed to a post-Cold War low over the Salisbury attack, the first known offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since World War Two.<\/p>\n

The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned the British ambassador, Laurie Bristow, to a meeting on Saturday morning in central Moscow at its Stalin-era headquarters during which he was informed of the retaliatory measures.<\/p>\n

Bristow told reporters afterwards that Britain had only expelled the Russian diplomats after Moscow had failed to explain how the nerve toxin had got to Salisbury.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will always do what is necessary to defend ourselves,\u201d the ambassador told reporters.<\/p>\n

Britain\u2019s foreign ministry said it had anticipated Russia\u2019s response and the National Security Council would meet early next week to consider next steps.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur priority today is looking after our staff in Russia and assisting those that will return to the UK,\u201d it said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cRussia\u2019s response doesn\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

WAR OF WORDS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s response was more robust than expected. The closure of the British Council\u2019s Moscow office will sever cultural ties, while that of the consulate-general in St Petersburg will end Britain\u2019s diplomatic presence in Russia\u2019s second city.<\/p>\n

Russian news agencies cited politicians in Russia\u2019s upper house of parliament as welcoming the move to close the British Council, alleging it had been used as a cover by British spies.<\/p>\n

British lawmaker Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, said the move to close the organization\u2019s office would hurt the Russian people. TNS\/ Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MOSCOW March 17 (TNS): Russia expelled 23 British diplomats on Saturday in a carefully calibrated retaliatory move against London, which has accused the Kremlin of orchestrating a nerve toxin attack on a former Russian double agent and his daughter in southern England. Escalating a crisis in relations, Russia said it was also shutting down the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56808,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56807"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56809,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56807\/revisions\/56809"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/56808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}