Trudeau Calls Chemical Attack on Former Russian Spy in the UK ‘Despicable’

British authorities have said Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent called Novichok, which was developed by the former Soviet Union during the end of the Cold War.

May has directly accused President Vladimir Putin of being behind the attack.

North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies on Wednesday put out a joint statement condemning the attack, and Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said it must have “consequences”.

“Prime Minister May’s decision to expel the Russian diplomats is the level of response that many Americans have been craving from our own administration”.

According to him, there were “two plausible explanationsa of the attack – “either a direct act by Russia against Britain or the (Russian) government lost control of the military grade nerve agents'”.

Yesterday Mrs May gave a seven-day warning to 23 Russian diplomats to leave the UK.

They noted that most of the people punished Thursday had been previously charged in the Mueller probe – which Trump keeps criticizing.

Condemning the “unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom”, May said Britain “will freeze Russian state assets wherever we have the evidence that they may be used to threaten the life or property” of its citizens or residents.

Speaking at an event in Moscow on Thursday night, Vladimir Putin said Russian Federation is a “proud” nation “and will be in the future, too”. “It must therefore be met with a full and robust response”.

Russian Federation denies being the source of the nerve agent, suggesting it could have been another country, and has demanded Britain share samples collected by investigators. “They could be used here in NY or in cities of any country that sits on this council”. Jeremy Corbyn suggests Russian Federation may have “negligently lost control” of the nerve agent.

“It’s a great shame for the Russian people that they’re closing the British Council which has done an terrible lot to educate Russian people in the English language and to help them get jobs and opportunities around the world”, he told the BBC.

One can’t really know, and the widow of another former Russian spy murdered in Britain by Russian intelligence 12 years ago, Alexander Litvinenko, suggested there was, in fact, little logic to such decisions. Britain and its allies yesterday blamed Moscow directly for a poison attack on a double agent in England, escalating diplomatic tensions as Washington separately announced sanctions against Russian Federation for allegedly meddling in its elections.

Analysts said that Britain was bracing itself for a tit-for-tat response from Russian Federation.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that President Vladimir Putin had met with members of his national security council Thursday for a “detailed discussion” on the situation with Britain.

The criticism came on Thursday in a rare joint statement by British Prime Minister Theresa May, US President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres earlier said the use of a nerve agent was “unacceptable” and called for a thorough investigation.

Skripal and his daughter Yulia have been critically ill since they were found unconscious on a bench in the southern English city of Salisbury on March 4.

“In his campaign rally in Crimea today, President Putin reiterated Russia’s false claims to Ukrainian territory in another open admission that the Russian government disdains the global order and disrespects the territorial integrity of sovereign nations”, Nauert said.

The Foreign Office said in a statement that it had expected the Russian retaliation, which includes closing the British consulate in St. Petersburg and barring cultural organization the British Council.

It said it had “no connection” to what happened in Britain.