US president agrees Moscow must provide answers over poisoning as May prepares reprisals
Donald Trump has given Theresa May his full support for her strategy of confronting Russia over the poisoning of double agent Sergei Skripal, saying he is” with the UK all the route “.
The US president's backing came in a phone call on Tuesday after he had said earlier that it was conditional on the facts supporting the British prime minister's occurrence. Downing Street said Trump had agreed that” the Russian government must provide unambiguous answers as to how this nerve agent came to be used “.
Quick guide
Timeline: the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal
1. 30 pm
Police have confirmed that Skripal and his daughter were in Salisbury city centre by 1.30 pm. It are not aware if they walked from his home or whether they drove or were driven in.
Between 1.30 pm and around 4pm
Skripal and his daughter strolled around Salisbury and visited the Zizzi restaurant on Castle Street and the nearby Mill pub. They are believed to have been in Zizzi for about 40 minutes from 2.30 pm.
3. 47 pm
A CCTV camera at Snap Fitness in Market Walk captured two people initially thought to be Skripal and his daughter. The female appeared to be carrying a red handbag. Afterward it became clear the pair were probably not the Russian and his daughter. Police have been keen to speak to the couple.
4. 03 pm
The same camera caught personal trainer Freya Church. She turned left out of the gym and in front of her insure Skripal and the woman on a bench at the Maltings shopping centre. She said the woman had passed out and the man was behaving strangely. Church strolled on.
4. 08 pm
Footage that emerged on Friday from a local business showed that people were still strolling casually through Market Walk.
Approx 4.15 pm
A is part of the public dialled 999. The Friday footage depicts situations of emergency vehicle racing through the pedestrianised arcade shortly after 4.15 pm. A paramedic also operated through. Police and paramedics worked on the couple at the scene for almost an hour in ordinary uniforms.
5. 11 pm
The woman was airlifted to hospital; Skripal was taken by road.
5. 13 pm
Images taken by a passerby show that officers were still clearly unaware of the severity of the situation. They did not have specialist protective apparel and members of the public also strolled nearby.
5. 48 pm
Police told Salisbury Journal they were investigating a possible drug-related incident. At about this time officers identified Skripal and his daughter and by Sunday evening they were at his home- in normal uniform or street clothes. At some point DS Nick Bailey , now seriously ill in hospital, visited the Skripal house, but it is not known where he was contaminated.
Approx 8.20 pm
Officers donned protective suits to examine the bench and surrounding areas.
By 9pm
Officers were hosing themselves down. It was not until the next day that a major incident was declared.
Photograph: Ben Stansall/ AFP
May has already received strong supporting from key European leaders and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons( OPCW ), the body responsible for the control of chemical weapons.
The prime minister is preparing to set out a range of reprisals against the Russian country, including calls for fresh sanctions, visa forbids and crackdowns on Russian fund in the UK. She is expected to set out plans to build a coalition of international subsistence- from the European Union, Nato and even the United nations organization- to rein in Russia over time.
May will set her proposals to the national security committee on Wednesday before briefing MPs in a statement that could defined the course for UK foreign policy for years to come.
The package of measures comes in the face of a warn by Maria Zakharova, the Russian foreign affairs ministry spokeswoman, that Britain must not try to scare Moscow, pointing to Vladimir Putin's recent speech in which he presented a range of new nuclear weapons
The Russian embassy in London made clear that it would not comply with a British demand that it satisfy a deadline of midnight on Tuesday to set out its knowledge of the state's role in the poisoning of Skripal and his daughter, Yulia. Instead, Russia demanded access to the samples of the nerve agent novichok allegedly used in the two attacks and claimed May's ultimatum to Moscow breached international protocols, which allow an accused nation 10 days to respond.
Russia's ambassador to the OPCW, Alexander Shulgin, accused the UK of inducing unfounded accusations and pumping out hysteria.
” We call upon them to abandon the language of ultimatums and menaces and return to the legal field of the chemical convention, which allows us to resolve this kind of situation ,” he said.
A spokesman for the Russian embassy in the UK, responding to speculation Britain may mount a cyber-strike as part of its response, said:” Statements by a number of MPs,' Whitehall sources' and' experts' regarding a possible' deployment' of' offensive cyber-capabilities' cause serious concern.
” Not merely is Russia groundlessly and provocatively accused of the Salisbury incident, but apparently plans are developed under the UK to strike Russia with cyber-weapons .”
In Moscow, the Russian foreign ministry summoned the British diplomat, Laurie Bristow, and warned that” actions by the British authorities are openly provocative “.
” Any menaces of sanction measures against Russia will not be left without a reply ,” government ministries said.
” Not a single British media outlet will work in our country if they shut Russia Today ,” said Zakharova.
Timeline
Poisoned umbrellas and polonium: Russian-linked UK deaths
Georgi Markov
In one of the most chilling episodes of the cold war, the Bulgarian dissenter was poisoned with a specially adapted umbrella on Waterloo Bridge. As he waited for a bus, Markov felt a sharp prick in his leg. The opponent activist, who was an irritant to the communist government of Bulgaria, died three days later. A deadly pellet containing ricin was found in his skin. His unknown assassin is thought to have been from the secret services in Bulgaria.
Alexander Litvinenko
The fatal poisoning of the former FSB officer sparked an international incident. Litvinenko fell ill after drinking tea laced with radioactive polonium. He satisfied his murderers in a bar of the Millennium hotel in Mayfair. The pair were Andrei Lugovoi- a former KGB officer turned industrialist, who is now a deputy in Russia's state Duma- and Dmitry Kovtun, a childhood friend of Lugovoi's from a Soviet military household. Putin denied all involvement and refused to extradite either of the killers.
German Gorbuntsov
The exiled Russian banker survived an attempt on his life as he got out of a cab in east London. He was shot four times with a silenced pistol. He had been involved in a bitter dispute with two former business partners.
Alexander Perepilichnyy
The businessman collapsed while operating near his home in Surrey. Tracings of a chemical that can be found in the poison plant gelsemium were later found in his belly. Before his death, Perepilichnyy was helping functional specialists investment firm uncover a $230 m Russian money-laundering operation, a pre-inquest hearing was say. Hermitage Capital Management claimed that Perepilichnyy could have been intentionally killed for helping it uncover the scam involving Russian officials. He may have eaten a popular Russian dish containing the herb sorrel on the day of his death, which could have been poisoned.
Boris Berezovsky
The exiled billionaire was received hanged in an apparent suicide after he had expended more than decade waging a high-profile media battle against his one-time protege Putin. A coroner recorded an open verdict after hearing conflicting expert evidence about the way he died. A pathologist who conducted a postmortem examination on the businessman's body said he could not rule out murder.
Scot Young
An associate of Berezovsky whom he helped to launder money, he was discovered impaled on railings after he fell from a fourth-floor flat in central London. A coroner ruled that there was insufficient evidence of suicide. But Young, who was sent to prison in January 2013 for repeatedly refusing to disclose his finances during a divorce row, told his partner he was going to jump out of the window moments before he was found.
Throughout the day the UK worked hard diplomatically in Washington to persuade Trump to set aside his desire for a rapport with Putin, and recognise that Russia was the only country that had the means or the motive to seek to kill Skripal.
In his first reaction, and before his scheduled phone call with May, Trump offered only a reluctant adoption of the British occurrence, but did not immediately ascribe responsibility to Russia.
” It sounds to me like they believe it was Russia and I would certainly take that finding as fact …,” he said.” As soon as we get the facts straight, and we are going to be speaking with the British today- we're speaking with Theresa May today- and as soon as we get the facts straight, if we agree with them, we will condemn Russia or whoever it may be .”
Later, No 10 said that during their phone call” Trump told May that the US was with the UK all the route “.
It is not clear if the UK has definitive evidence that a Russian government agent was responsible for deploying the poison.
It would be a jolt to Anglo-US relations if Trump refused to accept the British intelligence evaluation, but since his election he has felt under siege over allegations that he colluded with Russia to win the presidency, and he believes former British intelligence officers have been feeding those allegations.
In another potential blow to the UK, Trump rejected his secretary of state only hours after Rex Tillerson, unaware that his sacking was imminent, issued an unequivocal defence of the UK position, which contrasted with a more ambivalent White House statement issued under Monday.
EU leaders rallied to the UK cause, with the EU parliament's chief Brexit negotiator, Guy de Verhofstadt, calling for a common EU stance at next week's council of ministers.
” Mrs May has said this is an attack against Britain as a country and I think that a common reaction in the next European council is absolutely needed and counter-measures should be decided by the EU ,” he said.
But privately, EU officials admit that European unity on sanctions against Russia over Ukraine has been cracking, and the most recent episode will merely ensure the current range of sanctions remain.
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has been keen to use the expected re-election of Putin this weekend as an occasion to reopen talks on the Ukraine peace process. Similarly, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, does not want to close dialogue with Putin.
After a round of international calls drumming up supporting among key allies the foreign secretary Boris Johnson told:” If this was a direct act by the Russian country then it would not simply be a threat to the UK, but a clear violation of the chemical weapons convention, a breach of international law and security threats to those who abide by the rules-based international order as a whole .”
