MOSCOW—U.S. diplomats were leaving Russia on Thursday hours after the Kremlin failed to garner support for a joint investigation into the use of a Soviet-era nerve agent in the U.K., moves that underscore the deepening divisions between Russia and the West.
The poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia has plunged ties between Russia and the West to their worst levels since the end of the Cold War. Russia, which denies it is responsible for the attack, announced the expulsion of 60 U.S. diplomats and others last week in response to decisions by North American and European countries to kick out 130 Russian diplomats.
On Thursday, passenger buses and cars entered a U.S. diplomatic compound in Moscow, exiting more than two hours later in the direction of the airport, RT and news agencies reported.
The expulsions have complicated embassy and consulate activities. They have at times targeted couples employed at diplomatic missions, expelling one member of a family, but not the other, those with knowledge of the situation have said.
The U.S. Embassy referred requests for comment to the State Department, which didn’t immediately respond.
At an executive meeting of the Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons watchdog on Wednesday called by Moscow, Russia failed to garner the support it needed to open a joint investigation that would have allowed its participation.
The OPCW’s executive council has 41 members and generally needs two-thirds of votes to act on important matters. The countries that supported Russia’s proposal included mostly former Soviet states as well as Syria and Iran.
John Foggo, the U.K.’s acting envoy to the OPCW, said the weight of evidence against Russia excluded Moscow’s participation.
“There is no requirement in the Chemical Weapons Convention for a victim to engage the likely perpetrator in a joint investigation. To do so would be perverse,” he said in a statement.
Russia blames the U.K. for keeping information secret it says could help Moscow aid the investigation. The EU however says Moscow hasn’t done enough to counter suspicions Russia was behind the attack.
Bulgaria’s envoy to the OPCW gave a statement on behalf of the EU, scolding Russia over the numerous theories, often conflicting or implausible, as to who was behind the nerve agent attack. Western officials call the theories an attempt to muddy the waters.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow would continue to look for ways to establish the truth around the case and condemned the accusations.
“We have not seen for a long time such open mockery of international law, diplomatic ethics and decency,” he told Russian news agencies.
The Russian ambassador to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzya, called a meeting of the United Nations Security Council for Thursday to discuss the poisoning and condemn the use of chemical weapons.
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also expressed outrage at a nearly two-hour press briefing earlier in the week in which she pointed to historical examples in which she said Russia had been scapegoated, even mentioning an 1885 newspaper article that blamed the then-Russian Empire for a London bombing.
Write to Thomas Grove at thomas.grove@wsj.com
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