Britain yesterday hailed the mass expulsion of more than 100 suspected Russian spies around the world as a “turning point” for the West’s attitude to a “reckless” Russia, as Moscow warned it would retaliate against “loutish behavior.”
Ireland yesterday became the latest nation to order out a Russian diplomat, with at least 117 Russian diplomats ordered out by 24 governments over two days, dwarfing similar measures during Cold War spying disputes.
“Never before have so many countries come together to expel Russian diplomats,” British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Boris Johnson wrote in the Times newspaper, calling it “a “blow from which Russian intelligence will need many years to recover.”
Photo: AFP
“I believe that yesterday’s events could become a turning point,” he said, adding: “The Western alliance took decisive action and Britain’s partners came together against the Kremlin’s reckless ambitions.”
The expulsions were a response to the poisoning of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with a nerve agent in Salisbury, England, on March 4.
Skripal, a Russian military intelligence officer imprisoned by Moscow for passing on information about Russian agents in various European countries, came to Britain in a 2010 spy swap.
Britain earlier ordered the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats after blaming Moscow for the attack — a charge fiercely denied by Moscow, which has pointed the finger at British intelligence.
Russia yesterday promised it would hit back.
“We’ll respond, have no doubt! No one wants to put up with such loutish behavior and we won’t,” Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov said on the sidelines of a conference in Uzbekistan.
Lavrov said the coordinated response was the result of “colossal pressure, colossal blackmail” from the US.
Washington led the way in a coordinated response after Britain’s calls for international action by ordering out 60 Russians in a new blow to US-Russia ties.
Australia, Canada, Ukraine and 17 EU states matched the move with smaller-scale expulsions.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg yesterday announced that the alliance would expel seven staff from the Russian mission.
“These expulsions are particularly destructive for US-Russia relations,” Russian foreign policy analyst Fyodor Lukyanov wrote in the Vedomosti daily.
“Relations between Russia and the West are entering a period of full Cold War,” he said.
The Izvestia daily dismissed the expulsions as a “russophobic flashmob.”
In his Times article, Johnson said the attack fell into pattern of “reckless behavior” by Russian President Vladimir Putin, including the annexation of Crimea, adding: “The common thread is Putin’s willingness to defy the essential rules on which the safety of every country depends.”
Additional reporting by AP
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS