Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal | |
---|---|
![]() A forensics tent covers the bench where Sergei and Yulia Skripal fell unconscious | |
Location | Salisbury, Wiltshire, England |
Date | 4 March 2018 |
Target | Sergei Viktorovich Skripal and Yulia Sergeyevna Skripal |
Weapons | Novichok nerve agent (the Russian ambassador to the UK instead claimed or suggested A-234)[1] |
Victims | 3 hospitalised (the Skripals, and Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey of Wiltshire Police) |
On 4 March 2018, former Russian military intelligence officer and British spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia Skripal were poisoned in Salisbury, England, with a Novichok nerve agent, according to official UK sources.[2][3] As of 26 March 2018,[update] Sergei remained critically ill in hospital and doctors have indicated that he may never fully recover;[4][5] Yulia, shortly afterwards, was conscious again and able to speak.[6] A police officer also fell seriously ill and by 22 March had recovered enough to leave hospital.[7] An additional 46 people sought medical advice after the attack, but none required treatment.[8][a]
In the 1990s, Sergei Skripal was an officer for Russia's Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) and worked as a double agent for the UK's Secret Intelligence Service from 1995 until his arrest in Moscow in December 2004. He was convicted of high treason and sentenced to 13 years in a penal colony by a Russian court in 2006. He settled in the UK in 2010 following the Illegals Program spy swap. While Sergei is a British citizen,[10] Yulia is a Russian citizen[11][12] and was visiting her father from Moscow at the time of the poisoning.
Later in March, the British government accused Russia of attempted murder and announced diplomatic sanctions against Russia, including the expulsion of numerous diplomats accused of being intelligence agents. The UK's official assessment was given support from the United States and other allies while Russia denied the accusations. The US, the European Union, NATO, most EU countries, and some other countries also took similar measures against Russia. Ten European states did not support the accusations formally, Austria, Switzerland, Portugal, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Slovakia, Slovenia, Malta and Luxembourg.[13]
At 16:15 on 4 March 2018, an emergency services call reported that Sergei Skripal, a 66-year-old resident of Salisbury, and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia, who had flown into London's Heathrow Airport from Russia the previous day, had been found unconscious on a public bench in the centre of Salisbury by a doctor and a nurse who were passing by.[14][15][16] An eyewitness was reported having seen Yulia foaming at the mouth with her eyes wide open but completely white.[17] At 17:10, they were separately taken to Salisbury District Hospital by an ambulance and an air ambulance.[18]
According to the UK government, the two were poisoned with a nerve agent.[1] The police declared a major incident as multiple agencies were involved.[19] Following the incident, health authorities checked 21 members of the emergency services and the public for possible symptoms;[20][21] two police officers were treated for possible minor symptoms, said to be itchy eyes and wheezing, while one, Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, who had been sent to Sergei Skripal's house, had been in a serious condition.[22][23]
On 22 March 2018, Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey was discharged from the hospital. In a statement he said "normal life for me will probably never be the same" and also thanked the hospital staff.[7] As of 26 March 2018[update], Skripal and his daughter remained critically ill.[4] On 29 March 2018 it was announced that Yulia Skripal's condition was improving and she was no longer in a critical condition.[24]
The first public response to the poisoning came on 6 March. It was agreed under the National Counter Terrorism Policing Network that the Counter Terrorism Command based within the Metropolitan Police would take over the investigation from Wiltshire Police. Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley, head of Counter Terrorism Policing, appealed for witnesses to the incident following a COBR meeting chaired by Home Secretary Amber Rudd.[25]
Samples of the nerve agent used in the attack tested positive at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down for a "very rare" nerve agent, according to the UK Home Secretary.[26]
Military experts in chemical warfare defence and decontamination, 180 in number, as well as 18 vehicles, were deployed on 9 March to assist the Metropolitan Police to remove vehicles and objects from the scene and look for any further traces of the nerve agent. The personnel were drawn mostly from the Army, including instructors from the Defence CBRN Centre and the 29 Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Search Group, as well as from the Royal Marines and Royal Air Force. The vehicles included TPz Fuchs operated by Falcon Squadron from the Royal Tank Regiment.[27] On 11 March, the UK government advised those present at either The Mill pub or the Zizzi restaurant in Salisbury on 4 and 5 March to wash or wipe their possessions, emphasising that the risk to the general public was low.[28][29]
Several days later, on 12 March, Prime Minister Theresa May said the agent had been identified as one of the Novichok family of agents, believed to have been developed in the 1980s by the Soviet Union.[30][31] According to the Russian ambassador to the UK, Alexander Yakovenko, the British authorities identified the agent as A-234.[1]
By 14 March, the focus of the investigation shifted to Skripal's home and car, a bench where the two fell unconscious, a restaurant in which they dined and a pub where they had drinks.[32] A recovery vehicle was removed by the military from Gillingham in Dorset on 14 March, in connection with the poisoning.[33][34]
Subsequently, there was speculation in the media in the UK and U.S. respectively that the nerve agent had been planted in one of the personal items in Yulia Skripal′s suitcase before she left Moscow for London,[35] or that it had been planted in their car.[36][37]
Ahmet Üzümcü, Director-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), said on 20 March that it will take "another two to three weeks to finalise the analysis" of samples taken from the poisoning of Skripal.[38]
On 22 March, the Court of Protection gave permission for new blood samples to be obtained from Yulia and Sergei Skripal for use by the OPCW.[39][40]
By 28 March, the police investigation concluded that the Skripals were poisoned at Sergei's home, with the highest concentration being found on the handle of his front door.[41]
See also: Reactions to the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal |
Within days of the attack, political pressure began to mount on Theresa May's government to take action against the perpetrators, and most politicians appeared to believe that the Russian government was behind the attack.[42][43] The situation was additionally sensitive for Russia as Russian president Vladimir Putin was facing his fourth presidential election in mid-March, and Russia was to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup football competition in June.[43][44]
UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd said on 8 March 2018 that the use of a nerve agent on UK soil was a "brazen and reckless act" of attempted murder "in the most cruel and public way".[45] Tom Tugendhat, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee of the House of Commons, said that the evidence indicated that the Russian government ordered the attempted murder, citing similarities to the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and prior threats against Skripal's life.[26]
Prime minister Theresa May, speaking in the House of Commons on 12 March, delivered a statement on the incident, saying:
It is now clear that Mr Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia. This is part of a group of nerve agents known as 'Novichok'. Based on the positive identification of this chemical agent by world-leading experts at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton 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 some defectors as legitimate targets for assassinations; the Government has concluded that it is highly likely that Russia was responsible for the act against Sergei and Yulia Skripal. Mr Speaker, there are therefore only two plausible explanations for what happened in Salisbury on the 4th of March. Either this was a direct act by the Russian State against our country. Or the Russian government lost control of this potentially catastrophically damaging nerve agent and allowed it to get into the hands of others.[30]
May also said that the UK government requested that Russia explain which of these two possibilities it was by the end of 13 March 2018.[30] She also said: "[T]he extra-judicial killing of terrorists and dissidents outside Russia were given legal sanction by the Russian Parliament in 2006. And of course Russia used radiological substances in its barbaric assault on Mr Litvinenko." She said that the UK government would "consider in detail the response from the Russian State" and in the event that there was no credible response, the government would "conclude that this action amounts to an unlawful use of force by the Russian State against the United Kingdom" and measures would follow.[30] British media billed the statement as "Theresa May's ultimatum to Putin."[2][46]
Prime Minister May unveiled a series of measures on 14 March 2018 in retaliation for the poisoning attack, after the Russian government refused to meet the UK's request for an account of the incident. One of the chief measures was the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats which she presented as "actions to dismantle the Russian espionage network in the UK", as these diplomats had been identified by the UK as "undeclared intelligence agents".[47][48] The BBC reported other responses, including:[49][50]
The Prime Minister said that some measures which the government planned could "not be shared publicly for reasons of national security".[47] Jeremy Corbyn cast doubt in his parliamentary response to May's statement concerning blaming the attack on Russia prior to the results of an independent investigation, which provoked criticism from some MPs, including members of his own party.[53][54] He supported the expulsion but argued that a crackdown on money laundering by UK financial firms on behalf of Russian oligarchs would be a more effective measure against "the Putin regime" than the Tory government's plans.[55] Corbyn pointed to the pre-Iraq War judgements about Iraq and weapons of mass destruction as reason to be suspicious.[56]
The United Nations Security Council called an urgent meeting on 14 March 2018 on the initiative of the UK to discuss the Salisbury incident.[57][58] According to the Russian mission's press secretary, the draft press statement introduced by Russia at the United Nations Security Council meeting was blocked by the UK.[59] The UK and the US blamed Russia for the incident during the meeting, with the UK accusing Russia of breaking its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention.[60] Separately, the White House fully supported the UK in attributing the attack to Russia, as well as the punitive measures taken against Russia. The White House also accused Russia of undermining the security of countries worldwide.[61][62]
The UK, and subsequently NATO, requested Russia provide "full and complete disclosure" of the Novichok programme to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.[63][64][65] On 13 March 2018, UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd ordered an inquiry by the police and security services into alleged Russian state involvement in previous suspicious deaths of Russian exiles and businessmen in the UK.[66] On 14 March 2018, the government stated it would supply a sample of the substance used to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons once UK legal obligations from the criminal investigation permitted.[67]
British foreign secretary Boris Johnson said on 16 March that it was "overwhelmingly likely" that the poisoning had been ordered directly by Russian president Putin, which marked the first time the British government accused Vladimir Putin of personally ordering the poisoning.[68]
A spokesman for Russian president Vladimir Putin was on 6 March quoted as saying, "We see this tragic situation, but we don't have information on what could have led to this, what he was engaged in".[69] On 12 March 2018, both Vladimir Putin and his spokesman dismissed questions about the incident from the press as not relevant for the Russian government, with Dmitry Peskov, Putin's Press Secretary, explaining that no official representation about the issue had been made from the UK government, whereas "the aforesaid Russian citizen had worked for one of Britain's secret services" and the incident occurred on British soil.[70][71][72]
Head of the Federation Council's committee on international affairs Konstantin Kosachev told the Interfax news agency: "To sound an official version of events that has not been verified but is ‘politically tasty’ is first of all dishonest. Secondly, it violates the principle of the presumption of innocence, and thirdly it puts pressure on investigators."[73]
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has rejected Britain's claim of Russia's involvement in Skripal's poisoning, saying "This is all nonsense, we've got nothing to do with this."[74] He also accused the United Kingdom of spreading the "propaganda".[75][76] Lavrov said that Russia was "ready to cooperate" and demanded access to the samples of the nerve-agent which was used to poison Skripal. The request was rejected by the British government.[77]
Following Theresa May's 12 March statement in Parliament – in which she gave Vladimir Putin's administration until midnight of the following day to explain how a former spy was poisoned in Salisbury, otherwise she would conclude it was an "unlawful use of force" by the Russian state against the UK[78] – Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, talking to the Russian press on 13 March, referred to the statement as "an ultimatum from London" and endorsed remarks made by the ministry's spokesperson the day prior, who called May's statement "a circus show in the British parliament";[79][80][81] he added that the procedure stipulated by the Chemical Weapons Convention should be followed whereunder Russia was entitled to have access to the substance in question and 10 days to respond.[79][82][83] He called allegations about Russia's complicity "balderdash".[84] The Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, speaking on a Russian state television channel on the evening of 13 March, said that no one had the right to present Russia with 24-hour ultimatums.[85][86][87]
On the evening of 13 March 2018, the Russian Embassy in London posted a tweet that said that Russia had served a diplomatic note rejecting any involvement in the Salisbury incident.[88] The Embassy posted several other tweets on 13 March that said that Moscow would not respond to London's ultimatum until it received samples of the chemical substance to which the UK investigators were referring.[89][90]
On 17 March, Russia announced that it was expelling 23 British diplomats and ordered the closure of the UK's consulate in St Petersburg and the British Council office in Moscow, stopping all British Council activities in Russia.[91]
In total, Russian officials and mass-media have distributed around 25 versions of the Skripal assassination in what was described as a "smokescreen" by European External Action Service East Stratcom Task Force.[92]
On 29 March 2018, Russia’s foreign minister announced a series of retaliatory measures against the U.S. and the other countries that had expelled Russian diplomats.[93]
For a few days following the poisoning, Russian state-run mainstream media outlets largely ignored the incident.[94][95]
Eventually, on 7 March, anchor Kirill Kleimyonov of the state TV station Channel One Russia's current affairs programme Vremya said that being "a traitor to the motherland" was one of the most hazardous professions and warned: "Don't choose England as a next country to live in. Whatever the reasons, whether you're a professional traitor to the motherland or you just hate your country in your spare time, I repeat, no matter, don't move to England. Something is not right there. Maybe it's the climate, but in recent years there have been too many strange incidents with a grave outcome. People get hanged, poisoned, they die in helicopter crashes and fall out of windows in industrial quantities."[96][97][98][94][99] Kleimyonov's commentary was accompanied by a report highlighting previous suspicious Russia-related deaths in the UK, namely those of financier Alexander Perepilichny, businessman Boris Berezovsky, ex-FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko and radiation expert Matthew Puncher.[96] Puncher discovered that Litvinenko was poisoned by polonium; he died in 2006, five months after a trip to Russia.[100]
The host of the Vesti Nedeli on Russian state television (Russia-1 channel of VGTRK), Dmitry Kiselyov, said on 11 March that the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, who was "completely wrung out and of little interest" as a source, was only advantageous to the British to "nourish their Russophobia" and organise the boycott of the FIFA World Cup scheduled for June 2018. Kiselyov referred to London as a "pernicious place for Russian exiles".[101][102][103][104]
The prominent Russian television hosts' warnings to Russians living in the UK were echoed by a similar direct warning from a senior member of the Russian Federation Council, Andrey Klimov, who said: "It's going to be very unsafe for you."[83]
Vil Mirzayanov, a former Soviet Union scientist who worked at the research institute that developed the Novichok class of nerve agents and lives in the United States, believes that hundreds of people could have been affected by residual contamination in Salisbury. He said that Sergei and Yulia Skripal, if poisoned with a Novichok, would be left with debilitating health issues for the rest of their lives. He also criticised the response of Public Health England, saying that washing personal belongings was insufficient to remove traces of the chemical.[105][106]
Two other Russian scientists involved in Soviet-era chemical weapons development, Vladimir Uglev and Leonid Rink, were quoted as saying that Novichok agents had been developed in the 1970s–1980s within the programme that was officially titled FOLIANT and the term Novichok referred to a whole system of chemical weapons use; they, as well as Mirzayanov, who published Novichok's formula in 2008, also noted that Novichok-type agents might be synthesized in any other countries.[107][108][109][110] In 1995, Leonid Rink received a one-year suspended sentence for selling Novichok agents to unnamed buyers, soon after the fatal poisoning of Russian banker Ivan Kivilidi by Novichok.[111][112][113][114]
A former KGB and FSB officer, Boris Karpichkov, who operated in Latvia in the 1990s and fled to the UK in 1998,[115] told ITV's Good Morning Britain that on 12 February 2018, three weeks before the Salisbury attack and exactly on his birthday, he received a message over the burner phone from "a very reliable source" in the FSB telling Karpichkov that "something bad [wa]s going to happen with [him] and seven other people, including Mr. Skripal", whom he then knew nothing about.[116] Karpichkov said he disregarded the message at the time, thinking it was not serious, as he had previously received such messages.[116] According to Karpichkov, the FSB′s list includes the names of Oleg Gordievsky and William Browder.[115][117]
Main article: Reactions to the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal |
Following Theresa May's statement in Parliament, the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson released a statement on 12 March that fully supported the stance of the UK government on the poisoning attack, including "its assessment that Russia was likely responsible for the nerve agent attack that took place in Salisbury".[118] The following day, US President Donald Trump said that Russia was likely responsible.[119]
United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley at the Security Council briefing on 14 March 2018 stated: "The United States believes that Russia is responsible for the attack on two people in the United Kingdom using a military-grade nerve agent".[120]
Following the United States National Security Council′s recommendation,[121] President Trump, on 26 March, ordered the expulsion of sixty Russian diplomats (referred to by the White House as "Russian intelligence officers"[122]) and the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle.[123][124] The action was cast as being "in response to Russia's use of a military-grade chemical weapon on the soil of the United Kingdom, the latest in its ongoing pattern of destabilizing activities around the world."[122]
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Director-General Ahmet Üzümcü made the statement to a meeting of the executive council that the use of a nerve agent to poison the Skripals was "of serious concern" and added: "It is extremely worrying that chemical agents are still being used to harm people. Those found responsible for this use must be held accountable for their actions."[125]
Dr Ralf Trapp the former secretary of the Scientific Advisory Board of the OPCW stated in an interview that at this stage there is no conclusive evidence of Russian responsibility in the attack and that while there was evidence that Russia did at one time run a secret research program to create Novichok-type nerve agents, there is no proof that such programs still exist today.[126][127]
See also: Reactions to the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal § EU member states |
European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans argued for "unequivocal, unwavering and very strong" European solidarity with the United Kingdom when speaking to lawmakers in Strasburg on 13 March.[128] Federica Mogherini, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, expressed shock and offered the bloc's support.[129] Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament's Brexit negotiator, proclaimed solidarity with the British people.[130]
During a meeting in the Foreign Affairs Council on 19 March, all foreign ministers of the European Union declared in a joint statement that the "European Union expresses its unqualified solidarity with the UK and its support, including for the UK's efforts to bring those responsible for this crime to justice." In addition, the statement also pointed out that "The European Union takes extremely seriously the UK Government's assessment that it is highly likely that the Russian Federation is responsible."[131]
Norbert Röttgen, a former federal minister in Angela Merkel's government and current chairman of Germany's parliamentary foreign affairs committee, said the incident demonstrated the need for Britain to review its open-door policy towards Russian capital of dubious origin.[132]
Sixteen EU countries expelled 33 Russian diplomats on 26 March.[133][134]
Albania, Australia, Canada, Macedonia, Moldova, Norway and Ukraine expelled a total of 26 Russian diplomats who were believed to have been intelligence officers.[135] The New Zealand Government also issued a statement supporting the actions, noting that it would have expelled any Russian intelligence agents who had been detected in the country.[136]
NATO issued an official response to the attack on 14 March. The alliance expressed its deep concern over the first offensive use of a nerve agent on its territory since its foundation and pointed out that the attack clearly was in breach of international treaties. It called on Russia to fully disclose its research of the Novichok agent to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.[137]
Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General, announced on 27 March that NATO would be expelling seven Russian diplomats from the Russian mission to NATO in Brussels. In addition, 3 unfilled positions at the mission have been denied accreditation from NATO. Russia blamed the US for the NATO response.[138]
The leaders of France, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom released a joint statement on 15 March which supported the UK's stance on the incident, stating that it was "highly likely that Russia was responsible" and calling on Russia to provide complete disclosure to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons concerning its Novichok nerve agent program.[139][140] On 19 March, the European Union also issued a statement strongly condemning the attack and stating it "takes extremely seriously the UK Government's assessment that it is highly likely that the Russian Federation is responsible."[131]
By the end of March 2018 a number of countries and other organisations expelled Russian diplomats in a show of solidarity with the UK in "the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers in history":[141][138][142]
The UK expelled 23 Russian diplomats on Mar 14. Russia expelled an equal number, and announced closure of the UK consulate in St Petersberg and closure of the British Council in Russia. News outlets reported on Mar 23 that 10 EU nations were considering the expulsion of Russian diplomats. Nine of these nations took such action three days later, along with 6 other EU nations, the USA, Canada, Ukraine and Albania. The following day other nations inside and outside of the EU, and NATO responded similarly. On Mar 30, Russia expelled an equal number of diplomats tit-for-tat again most nations who had expelled Russian diplomats. By that time, Belgium, Montenegro, Hungary and Georgia had also expelled one or more Russian diplomats. Additionally on Mar 30, Russia reduced the size of the total UK mission to Russia to match that of the Russian mission to the UK.
Country / Organisation | Diplomats expelled | Date announced | Notes | Response by Russia | Date announced |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() |
2 | Mar 26 | 2 diplomats expelled by Russia.[143] | Mar 30 | |
![]() |
2 | Mar 27 | 2 diplomats expelled by Russia.[143] | Mar 30 | |
![]() |
1 | Mar 27 | Mar 30 | ||
![]() |
4 [144] | Mar 26 | 4 diplomats expelled. 3 pending applications declined | 4 diplomats expelled by Russia.[143] | Mar 30 |
![]() |
1 | Mar 26 | 1 diplomat expelled by Russia.[143] | Mar 30 | |
![]() |
3 | Mar 26 | 3 diplomats expelled by Russia.[143] | Mar 30 | |
![]() |
2 | Mar 26 | 2 diplomats expelled by Russia.[143] | Mar 30 | |
![]() |
1 | Mar 26 | 1 diplomat expelled by Russia.[143] | Mar 30 | |
![]() |
1 | Mar 26 | 1 diplomat expelled by Russia.[143] | Mar 30 | |
![]() |
4 | Mar 26 | 4 diplomats expelled by Russia.[143] | Mar 30 | |
![]() |
4 | Mar 26 | 4 diplomats expelled by Russia.[143] | Mar 30 | |
![]() |
1 [145] | Mar 30 | |||
![]() |
1 | Mar 26 | Mar 30 | ||
![]() |
1 | Mar 27 | 1 diplomats expelled by Russia.[143] | Mar 30 | |
![]() |
2 | Mar 26 | 2 diplomats expelled by Russia.[143] | Mar 30 | |
![]() |
1 | Mar 26 | 1 diplomat expelled by Russia.[143] | Mar 30 | |
![]() |
3 | Mar 26 | 3 diplomats expelled by Russia.[143] | Mar 30 | |
![]() |
1 | Mar 26 | 1 diplomat expelled by Russia.[143] | Mar 30 | |
![]() |
3 | 27 Mar | 3 diplomats expelled by Russia.[143] | Mar 30 | |
![]() |
1 [146] | 28 Mar | |||
![]() |
10 [138] | 27 Mar | 7 expelled and 3 pending applications declined. Maximum delegation reduced by 10 | Mar 30 | |
![]() |
2 | Mar 26 | 2 diplomats expelled by Russia.[143] | Mar 30 | |
![]() |
1 | Mar 26 | 1 diplomat expelled by Russia.[143] | Mar 30 | |
![]() |
4 | Mar 26 | 4 diplomats expelled by Russia.[143] | Mar 30 | |
![]() |
1 | Mar 26 | 1 diplomat expelled by Russia.[143] | Mar 30 | |
![]() |
2 | Mar 26 | 2 diplomats expelled by Russia.[143] | Mar 30 | |
![]() |
1 | Mar 26 | 1 diplomats expelled by Russia.[143] | Mar 30 | |
![]() |
13 | Mar 26 | 13 diplomats expelled by Russia.[143] | Mar 30 | |
![]() |
23 | Mar 14 | 23 UK diplomats expelled by Russia.
British consulate in St Petersburg closed. British Council closure. |
Mar 17 | |
UK diplomatic mission to Russia reduced in size to match Russian mission to UK. Requires the UK to recall a further 27 officials. | Mar 30 | ||||
![]() |
60 | Mar 26 | Russian consulate in Seattle closed
Including 12 delegated to the United Nations in New York |
60 US diplomats expelled by Russia.
US consulate in St Petersburg closed |
Mar 30 |
Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and the European Union itself have not expelled any Russian diplomats but have recalled their ambassadors from Russia for consultations.[147][148][149][150][151][152] Furthermore, Iceland has decided to diplomatically boycott the 2018 FIFA World Cup held in Russia.[153]