Britain’s foreign minister Boris Johnson stepped up London’s criticism of Moscow on Monday over a nerve agent attack on a former Russian double agent in England, calling Russian denials of responsibility “increasingly absurd”.
Johnson, who was due to brief fellow European Union ministers in Brussels later on Monday, also won renewed support from the bloc, though diplomats cautioned there was no immediate prospect of fresh economic sanctions on Russia over the attack, according to Reuters.
“The Russian denial is increasingly absurd,” Johnson told reporters as he arrived for the regular monthly meeting, which came a day after Vladimir Putin was re-elected for another six-year term as Russia’s president.
“This is a classic Russian strategy ... They’re not fooling anybody anymore,” Johnson said.
Read alsoBBC: Putin most likely behind spy poisoning – Johnson“There is scarcely a country around the table here in Brussels that has not been affected in recent years by some kind of malign or disruptive Russian behavior,” he added.
Russia denies any involvement in the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, in what was the first known offensive use of nerve gas in Europe since World War Two.
