U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters Monday evening poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal “clearly came from Russia” and “certainly will trigger a response.”
Tillerson noted that he didn’t know whether the Kremlin knew about the “really egregious” March 4 attack on Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia,33, but that the poison – which is “only in the hands of a very, very limited number of parties,” could not have come from anywhere else.
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“There is never a justification for this type of attack – the attempted murder of a private citizen on the soil of a sovereign nation – and we are outraged that Russia appears to have again engaged in such behavior,” Tillerson said in a statement. “From Ukraine to Syria – and now the U.K. – Russia continues to be an irresponsible force of instability in the world, acting with open disregard for the sovereignty of other states and the life of their citizens.”
Lashing out at Russia for what the US and its allies are now framing as Moscow’s “destabilizing role” in world affairs, Tillerson said “and now in the UK,” Moscow “continues to be an irresponsible force of instability in the world, acting with open disregard for the sovereignty of other states and the life of their citizens.”
The White House took a softer tone, declining to name Russia as the likely culprit.
“The use of a highly lethal nerve agent against UK citizens on UK soil is an outrage,” said Press Secretary Sarah Sanders. “Right now, we are standing with our UK ally,” Sanders said, adding “I think they’re still working through even some of the details of that, and we’re going to continue to work with the UK.”
Tillerson’s comments came hours after British Prime Minister Theresa May told the House of Commons that the Kremlin was “highly likely” to be responsible for the attack in the southwestern city of Salisbury, and the UK government would consider it an “unlawful use of force.”
May fleshed out the evidence that the UK has gathered to make its determination, while insisting that actions would be taken to hold the regime accountable – raising the possibility of more sanctions against Russia.
Hedging her bets
Instead of outright declaring that Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized the attack, May said UK intelligence have come up with two possibilities of the origin of nerve agent: The attack was either ordered by Putin, or Russia lost control of the nerve agent used against Skripal.
“Russia has previously produced this agent, and the government has concluded that it is highly likely that Russia was responsible,” May said.
May said that the attack happened “against a backdrop of Russian state aggression,” citing the annexation of Crimea four years ago and unrest in the Donbas region. She also brought up election meddling.
May has given Russia 36 hours to explain how the exotic nerve agent wound up poisoning Skripal, or face “extensive measures.”
Break: Theresa May gives Russian ambassador 36 hour ultimatum to explain how state developed nerve agent used in Salisbury, or face “extensive measures”.
— Tom Newton Dunn (@tnewtondunn) March 12, 2018
“I share the impatience of this house and the country at large to bring those responsible to justice and take a full range of appropriate responses….but as a nation that believes in justice and the rule of law it’s right we proceed in the right way,” said May, adding “There can be no question of business as usual with Russia.”
Should read, “Another one bites the dust courtesy of MI6.”
Trump just fired Tillerson. I wonder what that’s about
Why should anyone in the US care about a former Russian spy and his daughter, that an apparent assassination attempt was made on?
He wasn’t a US citizen, he was marginally an United Kingdom citizen. But basically he was a traitor to his birth country. He was also an acknowledged spy. A double agent spy at that. Why would anyone question his being killed? That is what usually happens to spies and people that turn against their country!
There are people in the US that demand that Edward Snowden be brought back to the US and shot. Many said the US should have taken him out in Russia. What is the difference between the US killing Snowden in Russia and Russia attempting to kill a Snowden like figure in the UK? Not much.
I do so love the smell of fresh hypocrisy in the morning…..
P.S. I second Mind’s statement about MI6.
It’s an excuse to hate Russia and instill hostility against the Russians.
All the rage lately, don’t ya’ know. A favorite theme of the MSM.
If not MI6, it could also have been the CIA. There are a lot of people on “our” side afraid that peace with Russia might break out.
A BIG difference – dipshit
That guy Christopher Steele should sleep with one eye open. Looks like the “dossier” people are tying up loose ends.
or getting revenge…
I ask what qualifies for a sanction? Maybe he was the guy who promised the dirt from the bear. Maybe he really has/had the dirt? Maybe daughter was part of dirt?
The couple looked pretty friendly in the surveillance images.
It is interesting that the Telegraph reported several days ago that one of Skripal’s associates listed Orbis Business Intelllgence as his employer on his ‘Linked In’ account ( since scrubbed). That of course, was Christopher’s Steele’s outfit.
Was Skripal one of Steele’s ‘sources’ for the dossier? Another British based Russian ‘dissident’ stated he stayed clear of Skripal as Skripal still communicated with Russian military intelligence personnel based at its embassy and his daughter was openly critical of Putin.
Then of course we have to wonder why Tillerson, who was notified he was being fired last Friday, made any comment on the Skripal matter.
Its clear to me the Russian government murdered Skripal. Who else would have had the exotic nerve agent Novichok but what isn’t clear is why? Was Putin sending a message to other emigre Russians to behave or was Putin enraged that Skripal had made a mess of US/Russian relations with his collaboration with Steele over the Trump dossier?
“Who else would have had the exotic nerve agent Novichok”
…US, GB, SA, China; give me a break!
I think it’s awesome that we have moved beyond things like evidence and the rule of law and straight into public lynchings.
Of course that may just come back around to bite people in the ass.
The guy was a damn trailor so he deserved to die in my highly intelligent opinion.Anyone one who disagrees with me should be taken out and beaten with a baseball bat!
I see that ass bite came around a bit sooner than anticipated.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-ousts-tillerson-will-replace-him-as-secretary-of-state-with-cia-chief-pompeo/2018/03/13/30f34eea-26ba-11e8-b79d-f3d931db7f68_story.html?utm_term=.d474ab174262
Tillerson to Pompeo, is that like jumping from the frying pan into the fire?
Interesting that none less than the NY Times proclaimed last year that Russia had destroyed all its chemical weapons…. (so where did this nerve agent come from)?
This whole Skripal incident stinks. Many independent thinking Brits (yes there are still some of us) are deeply skeptical about the accusations and absolutely irate that this has dominated the news/MSM over here for the last week, especially when a national paper just broke a MAJOR story about a massive pedophile ring in Telford. That story is being completely ignored by MSM over here, as was the anti-EU results of the Italian election in the previous week. Don’t think I can remember a time before when MSM had its head so far up it’s own ass?
Anyone interested in the Skripal story will find some interesting questions in a couple of articles at – http://truepublica.org.uk/united-kingdom/sergei-skripal-the-emerging-picture-of-a-desperate-government/
I’m speculating that with the Trump Russia collusion story being discredited we’ll see a few of these “Russia is Evil” incidents occuring in “friendly” countries outside the US….. Meanwhile China appears poised to finally launch the petro-yuan, which might well be the reason that the anti-Russia narrative is ramping up. Sorry guys, but we might be nearing the point where China/Russia grabs the US by the nads (i.e. squeezes the US$) and quietly point out to your leaders that it’s time to grow up.
I’m with Mark H
I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t believe anything coming from Government.
Libya and Syria should have taught you that Gov’t lies as soon as they open their mouth.
And we’ve got another one in London:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5495805/Russian-exile-dead-London-home.html
Maybe the CIA was responsible for the poisoning so they could start a new blame Russia.
Very possible and a perfect setup with a prior spy.
Tillerson seemed relatively sane. Pompeo is clearly a neocon enabler. The prospect for war with Iran is more likely. I expect a deal with little rocket man to clear the path.
There’s not going to be a war with anyone.
I recently read an interesting article about Iran’s F 14 fleet. I considered posting it here, but it was too long. In short, the author claimed that Iran is now capable of manufacturing all necessary spare parts, their avionics, radar and weapons capability have been upgraded and out of 79 originally shipped, about 40 are still in flying condition. Apparently they are still potent weapons.
I’d hoped that since Pompeo had been a congressman, albeit a neocon one, his ensnarement by the intelligence community might have been less than complete. He’s being replaced by Gina Haspel, whose background includes black op and rendition sites. Great. And she was promoted by John Voldemort Brennan. Good grief.
Russia’s causing of instability in Ukraine and Syria? Is the CIA going by the name Russia now?
Skripal was tied to the dossier. It was a swamp hit, not Russia.
Things could get very interesting. The latest from the Telegraph.
“There has been speculation that the UK could invoke Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, which enshrines the right to respond to an attack in self-defence.
Such a move could include a cyber counter-attack with reports suggesting that ministers are preparing for such an eventuality. That could include attacking Moscow’s computer networks.
Mr Johnson added: “What we’re doing today is giving Russia until midnight tonight to explain how it came to be that Novichok was used on the streets of Wiltshire.
“If they can come up with a convincing explanation then obviously we will want to see full disclosure of that to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in the Hague. If not, then clearly we will want to be announcing the UK response and that will come tomorrow.”
I wonder at what point the UK’s request for more natural gas gets a Nyet!? Thank goodness there won’t ever be any more bad weather in the UK. Hum, on 2nd thoughts maybe it’s time to buy some more logs?
The US will be happy to provide it and this might just be the impetus for the UK government to tell its econuts to go pound and sand and bring it to the British oil E&P companies so they can begin fracking with it.
Expect this media report: Tillerson says poisoning in the UK was clearly Russian in origin. Trump then fired Tillerson, showing his clear bias in all things Russian.
Ex MI5 says May is wrong – not necessarily Russia.
https://www.rt.com/uk/421158-russia-spy-mi5-machon/
The stories about Novichok program are just that- stories- none of which I have ever read any solid evidence that they are true. If Putin wanted Skripal dead, there are better ways to kill him- a bullet to the back of the head will always work and is much less likely to blowback on Putin. Actually killing him with a nerve agent is just fucking stupid unless part of the goal is disinformation. And if these people were poisoned by an agent 5-7 times more potent than VX, that they survived seems kind of odd to me.
Who benefits from this act? Russia or the Neocon war machine?
https://redice.tv/news/uk-intelligence-poisoning
If you cannot see this as a false flag, then you are blind.
If you believe this bag of fake shite, then you are not only blind, but willfully ignorant of the facts.
The neocons are all raging for war at the behest of their master’s, the big moneyed interests who want to not only cover their tracks, but to make outrageous profits at the same time.