UK PM Theresa May: ‘Highly likely’ Russia responsible for spy poisoning

LONDON: British Prime Minister Theresa May made a statement on Monday on the nerve agent attack against a Russian double agent in an English city, citing the use of a “military grade” substance and that it was “highly likely” that Russia was responsible.
May has asked the Russian Federation to provide full disclosure as to how the incident could happen. Either the Russian state was directly responsible for the poisoning or it had allowed a nerve agent to get into hands of others, May told Britain’s parliament.
The Russian ambassador has been summoned to explain how nerve agent was found in Salisbury.
May said that if no credible response was forthcoming from Russia, Britain will conclude that the action amounts to a use of force on British territory.
May was addressing the House of Commons after chairing a meeting of the government’s national security council, where she was updated on the investigation into the attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia earlier this month.
Senior politicians have pointed the finger at Russia for trying to kill the 66-year-old Russian Sergei Skripal, who sold secrets to Britain and later moved here in a 2010 spy swap, prompting repeated denials from Moscow.
The prime minister had declined to cast blame while the investigation ran its course.
Russian President Vladimir Putin brushed off a question about the affair while visiting a grain centre in Krasnodar, southern Russia, saying British authorities should first “get to the bottom of things,” the BBC’s Moscow correspondent wrote on Twitter.
The Russian foreign ministry responded by saying the comments by May were a “circus show.”

source AFP