US, France and Germany join Britain in saying Russia likely responsible for chemical attack against former spy

In 1992, two Russian scientists approached The Post's Will Englund, then the Moscow correspondent for the Baltimore Sun, about the country’s secret efforts to create Novichok, the deadly nerve agent that would later allegedly be used to poison double agent Sergei Skripal. </caption>

LONDON — The United States and two major European allies on Thursday formally backed Britain’s claims that Russia likely was responsible for a chemical toxin attack against a former spy living in England, calling it the “first offensive use of a nerve agent” in Europe since World War II.

The joint statement from the leaders of France, Germany, the United States and Britain signaled a further ratcheting of international pressure on Russia that has been mounting since former double agent Sergei Srkipal and his daughter, Yulia, were found comatose on March 4.

In the statement, the four leaders said they shared the view of British investigators that “there is no plausible alternative explanation” for the attack. They added that “Russia’s failure to address the legitimate request by the U.K. government further underlines its responsibility.”

Prime Minister Theresa May had asked Moscow to explain how Novichok, a military-grade nerve agent developed by Russia, came to be used in the town of Salisbury. She posited that either Russia was directly involved or it had lost control of a chemical weapon. Moscow responded to the ultimatum with scorn and sarcasm, ultimately blowing off May’s demands.

“It is an assault on U.K. sovereignty and any such use by a state party is a clear violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and a breach of international law,” the four leaders said their statement, released by May’s office.

“It threatens the security of us all,” they added, without spelling out any possible further reprisals by the United Kingdom and its allies.

Toby Melville

AFP/Getty Images

Prime Minister Theresa May speaks with Wiltshire Police Chief Constable Kier Pritchard on March 15 in Salisbury, where former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were found collapsed on a park bench after an apparent nerve-agent attack.

Asked by reporters on Thursday whether Russia was behind the attack, President Trump said, “It looks like it.”

“I spoke with the prime minister, and we are in deep discussions — a very sad situation,” Trump said. “It certainly looks like the Russians are behind it, something that should never, ever happen.” He added that his administration was taking the attack “very seriously.”

The next move could come from Moscow.

Russia would respond “very soon” to Britain’s retaliatory decision to expel 23 Russian diplomats, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday.

“The answer will come very soon, I assure you,” Lavrov said. “You know that we, as polite people, will first communicate this response to our British colleagues.”

On Thursday afternoon, May made her first appearance in Salisbury since the attack, speaking there with officials and local residents.

“We do hold Russia culpable for this brazen, brazen act and despicable act that’s taken place on the streets of what is such a remarkable city,” she told the BBC.

On March 14, British Prime Minister Theresa May announced her country would expel 23 Russian diplomats in retaliation for the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal.

Officials and pundits in Moscow have issued a steady stream of denials and counterclaims, a tactic that has continued through Thursday.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that President Vladi­mir Putin met with members of his national security council Thursday for a “detailed discussion” on the situation with Britain. “Extreme concern was expressed in connection with the destructive and provocative position taken by the British side,” he said.

Kirill Kudryavtsev

AFP/Getty Images

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said a response to Britain’s expulsion of 23 Russians would come “very soon.”

Lavrov reiterated earlier comments that the allegations were “boorish and unfounded.” The actions taken by the British “go beyond the limits of elementary rules of decency,” he said, while asserting that Russia has attempted to handle the situation in a civilized manner.

Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, told Interfax later Thursday that Russia ceased development of new chemical weapons immediately after joining the Chemical Weapons Convention, which was signed in 1993. He also insisted that neither Russia nor its predecessor, the Soviet Union, developed a nerve agent called Novichok, and he dismissed the accusation as an attempted pretense for the United States to delay the final destruction of its chemical weapons stockpiles.

Russia declared last year that it had completed destruction of its chemical weapons stockpiles and chided the U.S. for lagging behind. Both sides were expected to meet a 2012 deadline for complete destruction of the weapons, but both overshot. The U.S. has said it intends to complete the process by 2023. Novichok was believed to have been developed in the late 1980s, as the Soviet Union was negotiating the convention, to skirt the agreement’s requirements.

[Britain has few good options to hit back against Russia]

When asked how Britain might respond to any retaliation, British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson said that Russia “should go away; it should shut up.”

He was taking questions after a speech announcing a $67 million investment in a new chemical weapons defense center.

In Brussels, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the defense alliance stood ready to provide support to Britain. He condemned what he said was “the first offensive use of a nerve agent on alliance territory since NATO’s foundation.”

So far, Britain has held back from triggering NATO’s one-for-all, all-for-one collective defense clause that would activate a coordinated military response from the 29 member nations. NATO officials have suggested that the nerve agent attack probably does not rise to that level. But the alliance is engaged, Stoltenberg said. British National Security Adviser planned to brief NATO ambassadors on Thursday, and Stoltenberg will meet Monday with British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.

Russia is responsible for a “blurring of the line between peace, crisis and war,” Stoltenberg said, calling the Kremlin’s behavior “destabilizing and dangerous.”

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg spoke March 15 about an attack in Salisbury, Britain that targeted former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter.

Russia has also asked for access to the poison and its victims, 66-year-old Sergei Skripal and his daughter, 33-year-old Yulia Skripal.

They are both reported to be in comas after being found slumped on a park bench in the quiet town of Salisbury, near Stonehenge, on March 4. Skripal, a former Russian double agent, was jailed in Russia in 2006 for selling state secrets to British intelligence for 10 years, but he was released in 2010 as part of a high-profile spy swap.

Despite Russia’s constant and rigorous denials, the United States and France have fallen in behind Britain in support its conclusion that Russia was involved the use of the nerve agent on the Skripals.

“France agrees with the U.K. that there is no other plausible explanation,” President Emmanuel Macron’s office said in a statement following a phone call between Macron and the May.

Macron said France would take measures of its own in coming days against Russia.

Simon Dawson

Bloomberg

Boris Johnson, U.K. foreign secretary, leaves 10 Downing Street following a national security meeting in London, U.K., on Wednesday, March 14, 2018.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson called on Britain’s allies to stand united against the nerve-agent attack.

Writing in The Washington Post, he said that “all responsible nations share an obligation to take a principled stance against this behavior,” which he characterized as part of a larger pattern of “reckless behavior” by Putin. The nerve agent, Novichok, was selected for a reason, he said.

“In its blatant Russian-ness, the nerve agent sends a signal to all who may be thinking of dissent in the intensifying repression of Putin’s Russia,” Johnson said. “The message is clear: We will find you, we will catch you, we will kill you — and though we will deny it with lip-curling scorn, the world will know beyond doubt that Russia did it.”

Analysts said that Britain was bracing for a tit-for-tat response from Russia.

“They are not going to take this lying down, and we should expect that. If you’re not prepared to take a few blows, you shouldn’t make any punches. The question is, where does it stop?” said James Nixey, head of the Russia and Eurasia Program at Chatham House, a London-based think tank.

Bodner reported from Moscow. James McAuley in Paris contributed to this report.

Read more:

Britain’s expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats marks a return to Cold War ejections

Britain to expel 23 Russian diplomats after poisoning of ex-spy

Russia demands access to British probe of nerve agent attacks

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