Britain warned Tuesday it would respond "robustly" if it emerged that a government was behind the suspected poisoning of a former Russian double agent found unconscious on a street bench in England. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson even suggested England could pull out of the 2018 football World Cup in Russia if it were shown to be behind the incident.
Sergei Skripal was a former colonel in Russian military intelligence who spied for Britain and moved there in a spy swap in 2010. He was found outside a shopping centre along with his daughter Yulia in the southwestern English city of Salisbury on Sunday. The pair were treated for "suspected exposure to an unknown substance" and are in a critical condition in a local hospital, police said in a statement.
Johnson told the House of Commons that it was too soon to establish the cause of the "disturbing" incident, which caused a major security alert in the normally quiet city. But he noted "echoes" of the 2006 poisoning in London of Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko. A British inquiry ruled that attack was likely ordered by President Vladimir Putin. "Should evidence emerge that implies state responsibility, then Her Majesty's government will respond appropriately and robustly," Johnson said.
"Though I am not now pointing fingers, I say to governments around the world that no attempt to take innocent life on UK soil will go either unsanctioned or unpunished." Johnson went on however to refer indirectly to suspected Russian involvement. If that is confirmed, he said, "it will be difficult to see how UK representation at the World Cup can go ahead."
Britain's National Security Council discussed the Skripal affair at a meeting on Wednesday, where Prime Minister Theresa May, Johnson and senior ministers were updated on the ongoing investigation, according to a government spokesman.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.