US expels 60 Russian ‘spies’ over UK nerve attack

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has ordered the expulsion of 60 alleged Russian spies from the United States in response to a nerve agent attack on an ex-spy in the English city of Salisbury.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said the move, part of globally coordinated retaliation against Moscow, was taken “in response to Russia’s use of a military-grade chemical weapon on the soil of the United Kingdom.”
Officials said that 48 “known intelligence officers” posted to the United States and 12 more at the Russian mission to the United Nations now have seven days to leave the country.
Trump has also ordered the closure of the consulate in Seattle, which officials said was the focus of spying efforts against the nearby Kitsap submarine base and Boeing.
One senior administration official said that there were still more that 40 known Russian intelligence officers operating in the United States, but Moscow’s ‘collection capabilities’ would be ‘significantly’ affected by the move.
On March 4, former spy Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were found unconscious, slumped on a bench outside a shopping center in Salisbury.
After initial mixed messages about who was to blame, Washington now agrees with Britain’s assessment Russia was behind the attack.
The message, a second senior administration said, is “when you attack our friends you will face consequences.”
Coming on the heels of the US decision, EU President Donald Tusk also announced that fourteen EU states are expelling Russian diplomats in a coordinated response to the nerve agent attack.
“As a direct follow-up to last week’s European Council decision to react to Russia within a common framework, already today 14 member states have decided to expel Russian diplomats,” Tusk told a news conference in Varna, Bulgaria.
“Additional measures including further expulsions are not to be excluded in the coming days and weeks.”
The 28 EU states issued a statement saying they agreed it was highly likely Russia was responsible for the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia on March 4, and ordered the recall of the bloc’s ambassador to Moscow.
In what Britain hailed as ‘extraordinary international response’ to the spy poison case, Canada also expelled four Russian diplomats.
It says it will also deny three applications from Russia for deplomatic staff.
Ukraine is to expel 13 Russian diplomats. Germany, France and Poland have so far said they will each expel four Russia diplomats, the Czech Republic and Lithuania three, Italy, Denmark and the Netherlands two, and Latvia one. — AFP