Russia is set to expel British diplomats in retaliation for Prime Minister Theresa May's decision to kick out 23 Russians as relations with London crashed to a post-Cold War low over an attack involving a military-grade nerve agent on English soil.
After the first known offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since World War Two, Britain has pointed the finger at President Vladimir Putin and on Thursday May gave the 23 Russians who she said were spies working under diplomatic cover at London's embassy a week to leave.
The diplomats are due to leave London on 20 March, RIA news agency quoted Russia's ambassador to Britain as saying.
Russia has denied any involvement in the Skripal case. It has cast Britain as a post-colonial power unsettled by its impending exit from the European Union, and even suggested London fabricated the attack in an attempt to whip up anti-Russian hysteria.
Asked by a Reuters reporter in the Kazakh capital Astana if Moscow would expel British diplomats, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov smiled and said: "We will, of course."
Britain, the United States, Germany and France jointly called on Russia on Thursday to explain the attack. US President Donald Trump said it looked as though the Russians were behind it.
Chancellor Angela Merkel said an EU summit next week would discuss the issue, in the first instance to seek clarity. She said any boycott of the soccer World Cup, which Russia will host in June and July, was not an immediate priority.
Merkel said she would discuss with French President Emmanuel Macron during a visit to Paris on Friday an appropriate response to the attack, adding:
Many trails point to the fact that Russia is responsible.
Donald Tusk, the chair of EU summits, said he had spoken with May on Friday to prepare a clear message on the attack from the 28-nation bloc that Britain is due to leave next year.
British And Russian Ministers Trade Public Insults
In a sign of just how tense the relationship has become, British and Russian ministers used openly insulting language while the Russian ambassador said Britain was trying to divert attention from the difficulties it was having managing its exit from the European Union.
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said Britain's quarrel was not with the Russian people but with the Kremlin.
We have nothing against the Russians themselves. There is to be no Russophobia as a result of what is happening.Boris Johnson
"Our quarrel is with Putin’s Kremlin, and with his decision – and we think it overwhelmingly likely that it was his decision – to direct the use of a nerve agent on the streets of the UK."
The Kremlin's Peskov called the allegation that Putin was involved "a shocking and unforgivable breach of the diplomatic rules of decent behaviour", TASS news agency reported.
British Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson sparked particular outrage in Moscow with his blunt comment on Thursday that "Russia should go away, it should shut up".
Russia's Defence Ministry said he was an "intellectual impotent" and Lavrov said he probably lacked education. Williamson studied social science at the University of Bradford.
In London, opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn struck a starkly different tone to that of the British government by warning against rushing into a new Cold War before full evidence of Moscow's culpability was proven.
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