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© Thomson Reuters 2018.Britain will respond if Russia is proved to be behind nerve agent attack: PM May
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Madverts
Tiny Putin only understands force.
It's time for Europe to stop acting so weak towards Russian aggression.
Trump is Putin's ho so we can't even rely on the US anymore until he's excreted from power.
Disturbing times....
CrazyJoe
The UK should have seized Russian properties in London in response to the Litvinenko assassination, and the rest of Europe should have followed suit.
Another dead Russian to lay at Putin's feet. And this one with reported ties to Chris Steele. Way to make it obvious you're trying to cover it up, Putin.
PTownsend
In the times of the czars, the czar’s enemies (aka traitors) were tracked down throughout Europe and killed. After the Bolsheviks took over, they tracked down various White Russians (e.g. members of V. Nabokov’s family) plus others in the various opposition groups and killed them.
Russians have a long history of killing off those deemed traitors, and if this can be tied back to Moscow it looks like Russia's leaders are maintaining traditions.
dcog9065
There are huge amounts of Russian assets and investments in the UK, these should all be opened up for seizure if this assassination is proven
elephant200
This is the Russian's 'Home Business' at aboard! May won't do much, just like Litiveneko's demise was something doesn't matter!
Toasted Heretic
Russian state telly is having a laugh at Britain and the victims.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43330498
Patriotic chest beating on both sides.
kurisupisu
If Russia is tied to this then there should be retaliation.
How many more deaths should the Uk accept?
Luddite
Time to kick out the Russians and seize assets.
Haaa Nemui
Wait... Did they die already?
Goodlucktoyou
English people love James Bond, it makes them feel proud. But the reality is that spies are spies and it's a real world. If your not part of their underworld, then you have nothing to worry about, just let spies be spies
Luddite
Ridiculous. This isn't a John Le Carre story, it's real life. What about the 21 other people who were hospitalised, or are they part of the 'underworld' too?
Laguna
Julian Assange must be relieved he only pissed off the US, not Putin. This Putin sending a definite message to others contemplating crossing him.
PTownsend, remember that Trotsky was killed in Mexico City with an ice pick.
Asakaze
Brilliant trick from the British, they almost got rid of a useless double agent (why spend UK taxpayers' money on his pension) and the same time fanned to a new level the old good Cold war propaganda. Two birds with one stone!
Can anybody from the "Putin-did-it-personally-I-saw-it" chorus guys explain me one thing: if Putin wanted this spy dead so badly, why wait for more then ten years, why not to kill him while Skripal was in jail?
Laguna
Asakaze, "Waste not, want not."
Skripal was close to the West, so why not keep him tucked away until he could be used? (Turns out that was prescient.)
Killing him behind closed doors would not have accomplished anything; no one would have noticed. Taking him out in such a gruesome way in a park in small-town England - along with, allegedly, murdering most of his family members, sends a hell of a message: you and your family are safe nowhere no matter how much time passes.Oh, and if Skripal were a double agent, Britain would simply have arrested him. He was sitting right there, on a park bench, in England.
nandakandamanda
May Britain speak truth and stand firm for what is right.
Toasted Heretic
To send out a message to would be double agents and "enemies" of Putin. To send out a message that a slow and painful death is what awaits traitors. That you, the enemy, are not safe and we (Putin regime) will even target your family.
The publicity this is getting is global. Would have been a lot less if someone had murdered the guy in jail.
Asakaze
@zichi
Skripal was indicted in 2006, four years before the Chapman scandal.
@Laguna
He was not "close", after all he is not a politician, just a paid traitor. Interesting to note that when the Chinese destroyed the CIA network in 2010-12 they shot all the spies. Chinese are not prescient? Or clever - "if you work for the enemy, you'll be dead, there will be no exchanges"?
Mass media may be, but an unannounced execution would be very instructive to the all intelligence personnel.
To stage such a risky operation in a major Western country with very effective security apparatus? In times of heightened political tension, to risk even more serious political confrontation with the West? Do you seriously believe in that?
theeastisred
Asakaze:
Are you saying Russia didn't do this? You belong in the Hollywood Screenwriters' Guild...
Armed with this fact though I'm not sure what May can or will do about it.
Toasted Heretic
Outside of London and the big cities, it's pretty easy to cause mayhem. There's not armed police in every park in the UK!
Litivenko was poisoned in central London at the height of security concerns.
theeastisred
Then of course there was the Georgi Markov affair, stabbed with a poisoned umbrella tip while walking over a bridge in central London. Back when Bulgaria was a province or colony of the Soviet Empire.
Asakaze
@theeastisred
Not me, the guys from the "Putin-did-it" chorus are silverpen writers of this Guild...
@Toasted Heretic
Do you think that ex-spy who worked for the British intelligence was not under MI-5 protection, even "outside London and the big cities"? Among "Putin kills dissidents" hysteria? Really?
Toasted Heretic
Maybe he was but clearly it didn't work out for him.
theeastisred
OK so not the Russians, and not the Druids. Let's hear your theory.
Asakaze
OK, let's think about variants.
a) Russians. Theoretically possible, but very unlikely. Putin is clever, he won't risk a major confrontation with UK by staging such attack. It just not worth it.
b) British. The West has failed miserably in its attempts to punish Russia for the Crimea and Syria but keeps trying, and a little provocation would be very useful to pile additional pressure on Moscow. Skripal has outlived its usefulness for the British intelligence long time ago, he is expendable. Why not let something happen to him and then blame it on Russia? That's explains the fact that while Skripal should have been under protective surveillance nevetheless he was poisoned.
c) Third party. That's interesting, because there is quite a number of players very interested in a head-on collision between Russia and the West. First come to mind the Syrian connection: ISIS, Al Qaeda, "democratic terrorebels". They are losing the war, desperate, and at the same time they are well-funded, well-entrenched in the UK. They'll be happy to start a conflict between Russia and the West, for them both sides are all infedels.
elephant200
The mossad of Israel's intelligence has assassinated some enemies in Europe back in 1970s and they even killed a wrong person in Norway. The Europeans has almost see that invisible, so if you think they will react strongly against Russia's assassination then it is very naive. The Europeans were sands in the beach, they fall apart long long time ago before Briexit and maybe some countries were quite happy to see someone's embarassment! Traitor can be defined at a person but also a nation. There is a nation betrayed the EU and why should they cares their embarassment!
FizzBit
Just speculation so far. But it does sound a hellava lot more plausible than the Putin/Russia MSM knee jerk.
elephant200
Perhaps UK can ask for European Union's support or Trump's support to sanction Russia. Lets see how much sympathy they can spare! Perhaps a good reconciliation with EU after Briexit! Not a bad idea....right!?
Luddite
@elephant200 The EU already has sanctions against Russia, they have been there for some time. I know you have an agenda, but do keep up.
lostrune2
It could be from Russia, or it could be from someone else who wants to make it look like from Russia
Right now, the investigation is trying to determine which
But Russia isn't helping its own cause due to its past assassination history in Britain
But Britain hasn't really responded against Russia's past actions, so Russia can consider Britain a low risk against actions