Canada, Ukraine and member states of the
European Union joined the United States in expelling more than 100
Russian diplomats on Monday.
British
Prime Minister Theresa May called the worldwide backlash the “the
largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers in
history.”
“We have no disagreement with the
Russian people who have achieved so much through their country’s great
history. But President Putin’s regime is carrying out acts of aggression
against our shared values,” she said Monday.
The
United Kingdom and Russia have been locked in a diplomatic fight since
May’s government accused Moscow of organizing the poisoning of former
Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in the UK city of Salisbury.
Skripal
and his daughter Yulia were both exposed to a potentially deadly nerve
agent, according to British authorities, and remain in a critical
condition in hospital.
“We assess
that more than 130 people in Salisbury could have been potentially
exposed to this nerve agent,” May said on Monday, adding the Skripals
may never fully recover from the attack.
Russia has repeatedly and strongly denied it was involved in the Salisbury attack and has even suggested the United Kingdom itself could have been behind the poisoning.
As of Tuesday morning, 13 Russian
diplomats were expelled from Ukraine, while Canada, Germany, France and
Poland each expelled four.
More than a dozen other countries, including Australia, Italy and the Netherlands, have each expelled between one and three Russian diplomats or intelligence officers.
European
Council President Donald Trusk wouldn’t rule out on Monday the
possibility of further expulsions of diplomats in the days to come.
New Zealand said it would also expel Russian spies — if it had any.
“While
other countries have announced they are expelling undeclared Russian
intelligence agents, officials have advised there are no individuals
here in New Zealand who fit this profile,” said Prime Minister Jacinda
Ardern in a statement Tuesday.
“If there were, we would have already taken action.”
The
European Council has joined the United Kingdom and the United States in
saying the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter was almost
certainly the work of the Russian government.
Senior
Trump administration officials told CNN the decision to expel the
diplomats wasn’t just taken in response to the attack, but also in
protest to Russia’s “steady drumbeat of destabilizing actions.”
The
mass expulsion comes less than a week after US President Trump called
Putin to congratulate him on his re-election as President of Russia, against the recommendations of his advisers.
A handful of EU countries suggested they
wouldn’t be following suit and expelling Russian diplomats, among them
Austria and Portugal.
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz tweeted that
while he stood behind the European Council’s decision to recall the EU
ambassador from Moscow, Austria wanted to be “bridge-builders between
East and West and keep communication channels to Russia open.”
Similarly,
Portugal expressed its “solidarity with the United Kingdom” over the
Salisbury attack, though stopped short of expelling Russian diplomats in a statement.
Turkey
also said it would not be taking action, with Deputy Prime Minister and
government spokesman Bekir Bozdag telling reporters in Ankara on
Monday: “There is a positive and good relation between Turkey and
Russia.”
China, a key ally of
Russia, has urged countries to “abandon a Cold War mentality.” Foreign
Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters Tuesday that “relevant
countries” should “avoid taking any actions that would aggravate the
conflict.”
CNN