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‘Overwhelmingly Likely’ That Putin Ordered Spy’s Poisoning, Britain Says ‘Overwhelmingly Likely’ That Putin Ordered Spy’s Poisoning, Britain Says
(34 minutes later)
LONDON — Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson of Britain said on Friday that it was “overwhelmingly likely” that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia personally ordered the nerve agent attack against a former Russian spy this month.LONDON — Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson of Britain said on Friday that it was “overwhelmingly likely” that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia personally ordered the nerve agent attack against a former Russian spy this month.
Mr. Johnson’s remarks were a significant escalation in the dispute between London and Moscow, directly linking the Russian leader to the poisoning of Sergei V. Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in the English city of Salisbury. The attack has caused outrage in Britain and among its allies, which had previously accused Russia of either orchestrating the attack, or allowing the nerve agent to slip into the hands of another group that was able to use it. Mr. Johnson’s remarks were a significant escalation in the dispute between London and Moscow, directly linking the Russian leader to the poisoning of Sergei V. Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in the English city of Salisbury.
“We think it overwhelmingly likely that it was his decision,” Mr. Johnson said. Until Friday, British officials had been careful to give the Kremlin a little room for deniability, saying that either Russia directed the attack, or that it had allowed its chemical weapons to fall into the hands of unspecified rogue actors. That door may have been only slightly ajar, but Mr. Johnson appeared to shut it.
Britain said on Wednesday that it would expel 23 Russian diplomats over the poisoning. “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 U.K., on the streets of Europe, for the first time since the Second World War,” Mr. Johnson said at a news conference. “That is why we’re at odds with Russia.”
The Skripals were poisoned on March 4 with a nerve agent known as a Novichok, a type of chemical weapon developed by the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s, and both remain in critical condition, according to British officials. The case, including the use of an exotic toxin, had echoes of the 2006 assassination of Alexander Litvinenko, another former Russian agent, who was fatally poisoned in London with a radioactive isotope.
An official inquiry concluded that Mr. Putin had himself most likely ordered the death of Mr. Litvinenko, a harsh critic of the Russian government. British officials have vowed to re-examine the suspicious deaths of more than a dozen people in Britain who had run afoul of the Kremlin.
The attack on the Skripals has caused outrage in Britain and among its allies.
Prime Minister Theresa May said on Wednesday that Britain would expel “23 Russian diplomats who have been identified as undeclared intelligence officers,” take financial measures against Mr. Putin’s allies, and tighten controls on entry to the country by Russians suspected of wrongdoing.
Britain has sought to gather international condemnation against Russia over the poisoning, making its case to an array of international bodies, including the United Nations Security Council, and to several allies. On Thursday, the leaders of France, Germany and the United States joined Mrs. May in blaming Russia.
The following morning, Mrs. May spoke with her Australian counterpart, Malcolm Turnbull.