Spain expels Russian diplomats over Salisbury poisonings
Tuesday, March 27, 2018 @ 11:17 AM
SPAIN is one of 17 European Union member States to have deported Russian diplomats in response to the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, Wiltshire (UK) on March 4, both of whom are in hospital and not expected to recover.
Council of Europe president Donald Tusk says the EU supported British prime minister Theresa May in her decision to remove 23 Russian diplomats from their posts, and in total 56 have been ordered to clear their desks.
This response is a 'direct consequence' of the Council of Europe's discussions about the Salisbury attack last week, and is 'without prejudice of additional measures', including further sackings, 'in the next few days or weeks', Tusk said on Twitter today (Monday).
The EU leaders' Summit on Thursday, after Mrs May sent the Russian foreign office workers home, concluded that it was 'highly probable' that Russia was behind the poisonings and that there was 'no other plausible explanation' for them.
Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a bench near a shopping centre in the Wiltshire city over three weeks ago just after having eaten at the restaurant Zizzi and been to the bar The Mill, and traces of a nerve agent known as 'Novichok', which is manufactured in Russia, was found in the former spy's and the young woman's systems.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com