‘Full cold war’: Britain hails turning point after suspected Russian spies expelled around the world but Moscow promises to retaliate
Washington led the way in a coordinated response after Britain’s calls for international action by ordering out 60 Russians in a new blow to US-Russia ties
Britain on Tuesday hailed the mass expulsion of more than 100 suspected Russian spies around the world as a “turning point” for the West’s attitude to a “reckless” Russia, as Moscow warned it would retaliate against “loutish behaviour”.
Ireland on Tuesday became the latest country to order out a Russian diplomat, with at least 117 Russian diplomats ordered out by 24 governments over two days, dwarfing similar measures during cold war spying disputes.
“Never before have so many countries come together to expel Russian diplomats,” British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson wrote in The Times daily, calling it “a “blow from which Russian intelligence will need many years to recover”.
“I believe that yesterday’s events could become a turning point,” he said, adding: “The Western alliance took decisive action and Britain’s partners came together against the Kremlin’s reckless ambitions.”
The expulsions were a response to the poisoning of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with a nerve agent in the English city of Salisbury on March 4.
Never before have so many countries come together to expel Russian diplomats
Skripal, a Russian military intelligence officer imprisoned by Moscow for passing on information about Russian agents in various European countries, came to Britain in a 2010 spy swap.