Theresa May has warned that the west needs to develop a long-term response to the renewed Russian threat as she claimed more than 25 countries had joined the unprecedented coalition taking diplomatic action against Vladimir Putin in response to the nerve agent attack in Salisbury.



British officials are convinced that the Russian president is privately taken aback by the scale of the coalition that has formed against Russia, and may even in the medium term see the need to recalibrate how he handles the west.

May’s warning came as more EU members, as well as Nato, joined the group of countries expelling Russian diplomats or recalling their own diplomats from Moscow. States joining the coalition of disapproval included Ireland, Belgium and Bulgaria, even if they only expelled a token single diplomat or, as in the case of Bulgaria, just recalled its own ambassador from Moscow for consultations.

The Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, earlier announced that he was cutting the size of the Russian mission to Nato by a third from 30 to 20, and insisted the measures would materially affect Russian intelligence gathering.

Praising the unprecedented coordination he said: “This will send a clear message to Russia that there are costs and consequences for their unacceptable pattern of behaviour.”

The main EU countries that had declined to take any action are Greece and Austria, but even inside Austria there was controversy as the government asserted it was neutral between Russia and the west.

The Czech president, Miloš Zeman, also sounded a note of dissent against expulsions by his government, saying he wanted trustworthy evidence to prove the UK’s allegations of Russia’s involvement in the poisoning of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia.

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, was attacked by the far-right AfD, the biggest opposition party, over Berlin’s decision to expel four Russian diplomats.

Play Video 1:07 Theresa May: ‘largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers in history’ – video

Alexander Gauland, the co-leader of the party, said: “Germany has nothing to win and much to lose if it lets itself be drawn into a new cold war by rabble-rousers and if it wilfully blocks diplomatic channels.”

The foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, will argue in a speech on Wednesday that the scale of the response shows that Putin realises he is facing a new level of resolution, but to sustain it will require intensified defences against Russian hybrid warfare including cyber-attacks, energy and disinformation.

Johnson also told MPs that the EU’s response was a good omen for the UK’s efforts to remain close to the trade bloc’s foreign and security policy after Brexit.



Speaking to senior cabinet members in London on Tuesday, May said countries had acted against Russia not just out of solidarity but because they recognised the threat it posed.

“Yesterday was a significant moment in our response to this reckless act of aggression, but there is still more to be done as we work with international partners on a long-term response to the challenge posed by Russia,” she was reported as saying by her spokesman.

Later she told MPs she had seen no evidence that UK democratic processes had been successfully interfered with by Russia.

As Russia prepared to mount tit-for-tat reprisals against countries that have expelled Russian diplomats, Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, blamed the coordinated action on a US blackmail campaign, adding it revealed how few truly independent countries existed any longer in modern Europe.

“When one or two diplomats are asked to leave this or that country, with apologies being whispered into our ears, we know for certain that this is a result of colossal pressure and colossal blackmail, which is Washington’s chief instrument in the international scene,” he said.

A spokesman for the Russian embassy in London said: “The short-term goals are clear: to compensate for the loss of international influence by taking up the leading role in ‘containing’ Russia, and to divert public attention away from the not-so-successful Brexit talks.

“The problem is that, in the longer run, we are witnessing quite a dangerous trend in western policy not only towards Russia, but the world at large.”

Russian reprisals for the wave of expulsions are expected in the next few days.