Direct attacks: May outs Moscow, sets deadline for Putin

Theresa May sets Vladimir Putin a deadline of 11am today to explain how a Russian nerve agent poisoned the Skripals..

Police cordon off the upper level of a supermarket opposite the park bench where Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found in Salisbury, England. Picture: Getty Images

Theresa May accused Russia of ­either a “direct attack on” the UK or of losing control of a deadly nerve agent as she gave the Kremlin a 24-hour deadline to respond to the attempted assassination of double agent Sergei Skripal.

In a speech to the House of Commons, the Prime Minister early yesterday said the chemical used on critically ill Skripal and his daughter Yulia was Russian state-made Novichok, which was developed more than 30 years ago but never before deployed.

“Based on the positive identification of this chemical agent by world-leading experts at the laboratory at Port Down, our knowledge that Russia has previously produced this agent, and would still be capable of doing so, Russia’s ­record of conducting state-sponsored assassinations, and our ­assessment that Russia views ­defectors as a legitimate target for assassination, the government has concluded that it is highly ­likely Russia was responsible for the act against Sergei and Yulia Skripal,” Mrs May told parliament.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov insisted last night Moscow was not to blame for the poisoning, saying it would only co-operate is it received samples of the nerve agent. “Russia is not guilty. Russia is ready to co-operate according to the Chemical Weapons Convention, if Britain takes the trouble and condescends to carry out its international obligations according to the same document,” he said in Moscow.

Police believe the poison was planted in Mr Skripal’s car shortly before the pair were found catatonic on a park bench in the English city of Salisbury.

Mrs May said the “reckless and despicable” chemical attack was either a direct attack on the UK or Russia had “lost control of this ­potentially catastrophically damaging nerve agent”. She set a midnight deadline to expire at 11am AEST today for Russia to explain its role in the ­attempted assassination which also left a police office seriously ill. “Should there be no credible response, we will conclude that this action amounts to an unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom,” she told parliament.

Britain is seeking international support, including from Australia, as Mrs May prepares to retaliate.

Mrs May is considering a boycott by England of the soccer World Cup in Russia in June, expelling diplomats, ­extending economic sanctions and imposing travel bans on oligarchs connected to the Kremlin.

The British high commission in Canberra held discussions yesterday with the Department of ­Foreign Affairs and Trade, as well as the Department of Prime ­Minister and Cabinet, seeking Australian support.

Australia is part of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing agreement with Britain, Canada, the US and New Zealand. London has ­argued that its ­allies have benefited from British spying activities and that Russia’s actions are an ­attack against the rules-based order underpinning democracy.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said the attack was horrifying.

“It raises the obvious question, who had access to such a nerve agent,” she told the ABC. “So we support in the strongest possible terms the British parliament, and the British government’s ... efforts to bring those responsible to ­account to justice.”

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the US backed Britain and would co-ordinate the response, having agreed that Russia “must face appropriately serious consequences”. “We have full confidence in the UK’s investigation and its assessment that Russia was likely ­responsible for the nerve agent ­attack that took place in Salisbury last week,” he said.

“There is never a justification for this type of attack — the ­attempted murder of a private citizen on the soil of a sovereign nation — and we are outraged that Russia appears to have again engaged in such behaviour. From Ukraine to Syria — and now the UK — Russia continues to be an ­irresponsible force of instability in the world, acting with open disregard for the sovereignty of other states and the life of their citizens.”

Salisbury residents fear they have been exposed to Novichok. Locals were told to wash clothes and possessions if they were in the area on March 4 and 5.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson called in the Russian ­ambassador before a night of phone calls to counterparts.

As well as its Five Eyes partners, Britain is assessing if there is support from NATO, particularly German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, to invoke the rarely used clause of common ­defence, which states an ­attack on one member of the organisation is an attack on all 29 members.

While Mrs May offered a back door for Russia if it admitted to ­losing control of poison stocks, British officials were exploring retaliatory measures that will set back ties between the countries to the lowest level in three decades.

Before her declaration the Russian state was involved in the poisoning, President Valdimir Putin dismissively told a BBC reporter: “Get to the bottom of things there, then we’ll discuss this.”