Western governments back UK's Salisbury findings

By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal

LONDON

The U.S., Canada, France and Germany are in full agreement with the U.K.’s assessment that the Salisbury Novichok attack was “almost certainly approved at a senior government level” in Russia, a joint statement said on Thursday.

“We, the leaders of France, Germany, the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, reiterate our outrage at the use of a chemical nerve agent, known as Novichok, in Salisbury on 4 March,” the statement said.

Earlier on Thursday, British Security Minister Ben Wallace held Russian President Vladimir Putin "ultimately responsible" for the Salisbury nerve-agent attack.

Speaking to Sky News a day after the U.K. has revealed the names of the two Russian suspects for the March 4 chemical attack, Wallace argued that an operation at this level must have been authorized by the president himself.

The joint statement said the U.S., Canada, France and Germany “have full confidence in the British assessment that the two suspects were officers from the Russian military intelligence service, also known as the GRU, and that this operation was almost certainly approved at a senior government level.”

“We have already taken action together to disrupt the activities of the GRU through the largest ever collective expulsion of undeclared intelligence officers,” it said.

British prosecutors on Wednesday named two Russian nationals as the suspects of the Salisbury nerve-agent attack.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov are wanted for conspiracy to murder Sergei Skripal and the attempted murder of Yulia Skripal and police officer Nick Bailey.

Further sanctions

British Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday underlined that "28 other countries, as well as NATO, joined us in expelling a total of over 150 Russian intelligence officers: the largest collective expulsion ever," following the Salisbury attack.

On Thursday, Wallace signaled further steps to sanction Russia, saying that they will push for further sanctions by the EU, but following the departure from the bloc, the U.K. can and will introduce unilateral sanctions.

“Yesterday’s announcement [by Britain] further strengthens our intent to continue to disrupt together the hostile activities of foreign intelligence networks on our territories, uphold the prohibition of chemical weapons, protect our citizens and defend ourselves from all forms of malign state activity directed against us and our societies,” the joint statement by the 5 Western governments added.

Urging Russia “to provide full disclosure of its Novichok programme to the OPCW,” it said, they “encourage those with information about the attack in Salisbury” and the “further poisoning in Amesbury, to come forward to the UK authorities.”

Salisbury and amesbury

Sergei Skripal and his daughter were admitted to a hospital after being found unconscious on March 4 in Salisbury. They were both since discharged from the Salisbury District Hospital.

Police officer Nick Bailey, who was among the first to respond to the incident, also received treatment after being poisoned.

Sergei Skripal was a granted refuge in the U.K. following a 2010 spy exchange between the U.S. and Russia. Before the exchange, he had been serving a 13-year prison term for leaking information to the British intelligence.

In another incident, British authorities say involved the same nerve-agent in Amesbury, a woman died and a man fell seriously ill.

Dawn Sturgess, 44, fell ill on June 30 after handling an item contaminated with the nerve agent and was taken to a hospital, while her partner, Charlie Rowley, 45, was also exposed to the nerve agent and taken to hospital in a critical condition.

The Metropolitan Police continue a murder investigation into the death of Sturgess.