Additional measures
The shoe might start to pinch now.
The United States and its European allies are expelling dozens of Russian diplomats in a co-ordinated response to the poisoning of a former Russian spy in the UK.
It is said to be the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers in history.
More than 20 countries have aligned with the UK, expelling more than 100 diplomats.
Russia says it’s going to “retaliate” – which is silly because it did its retaliating in advance, which is why the allies are responding.
President of the European Council Donald Tusk said the EU states had decided to expel Russian diplomats as a direct result of a meeting, held last week about the Salisbury poisoning.
“Additional measures, including further expulsions within this common EU framework are not to be excluded in the coming days and weeks,” he said.
The US state department said in a statement: “On March 4, Russia used a military-grade nerve agent to attempt to murder a British citizen and his daughter in Salisbury.
“This attack on our Ally the United Kingdom put countless innocent lives at risk and resulted in serious injury to three people, including a police officer.”
It called the attack an “outrageous violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and breach of international law”.
The US is expelling 48 envoys at the Russian embassy in Washington and 12 more at the UN in New York. It will also order the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle.
Big turnaround for Don. Maybe he’s given up his dream of friendship with Vlad the Poisoner.
Good. I can only assume that someone told Trump not to go it alone over this, because it would look really bad coming so close to his interview with Mueller; and Trump, unusually, actually listened.
Either that, or he was too busy hiding from the kids to pay any attention to the few remaining sensible people in the administration, giving them free rein.
I suspect Trump was mostly, maybe even completely, cut out of the loop on this decision.
I suspect they told him he could play with Twitter all day, and maybe even pretend-drive a bulldozer or tank or something, if he would stay away from the office for a couple of days. Act like a child, be treated like a child – at least, that’s what my parents always told my younger sister when she was a teen (I didn’t learn how to act like a child until I was in my 30s, then I realized it could be a lot of fun…in moderation).
Europe will be feeling slightly brave as they are heading into summer. No immediate concerns about Russia shutting off gas.