UK to set up new chemical weapons centre after spy poisoning

The UK government today announced that it will set up a new 48-million-pound chemical weapons defence centre and vaccinate thousands of British soldiers against anthrax in the wake of the nerve agent poisoning of a former Russian spy.

UK defence secretary Gavin Williamson said the new facility will be located at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) in Porton Down, near Salisbury the city where former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found collapsed after being poisoned with a deadly Russian-made nerve agent.

"If we doubted the threat Russia poses to our citizens, we only have to look at the shocking example of their reckless attack in Salisbury. We know the chemical threat doesn't just come from Russia but from others," Williamson said.

"We have world-class expertise at Defence Science Technology Laboratory (DSTL) Porton Down...we will be strengthening this capability by investing 48 million pounds in a new Chemical Weapons Defence Centre to ensure we maintain our cutting edge in chemical analysis and defence," he said, adding that new measures will include British troops being vaccinated against anthrax a dangerous bacterial disease used in some bio-terror attacks.

The attack on the former Russian spy, a British citizen, has revived fears of a new era of Cold War with Russia, with Williamson admitting that relations with Russia were not good. "Some people say it might not be a cold war, but it is chilly," he said.

His announcement came as Prime Minister Theresa May today paid a visit to the site of the poisoning in Salisbury today as a show of solidarity with the emergency and security services on the ground and to offer reassurance to the locals who have described the city centre as a "ghost town" since the chemical attack earlier this month.

In a Parliament statement yesterday, she had announced the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats identified as "undeclared intelligence officers" in the single biggest such expulsion in around 30 years.

Russia has said that it will retaliate with the expulsion of British diplomats from Moscow, describing the UK's allegations of Russian culpability in the Skripals' poisoning as insane and absolutely boorish.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, who May declared would be barred from coming to the UK on a reciprocal visit planned for this year, claimed that the allegations were related to the UK's "inability to fulfil Brexit obligations".

In her Commons statement, Theresa May had said there was "no alternative conclusion" than to believe Russia was "culpable" for the attempted murder with a nerve agent from the Soviet-era Novichok group and announced a series of measures against Moscow, including freezing of Russian state assets and heightened monitoring of private flights, customs and freight linked with the country.

She told MPs that the Kremlin had failed to provide a credible explanation for how the nerve agent that it developed came to be used in the attack on the Skripals, who remain critically ill after being found slumped in Salisbury city centre on March 4.

She had confirmed that the UK's key allies, including the US, France and Germany were all supportive of its stand against "Russian aggression".

UK foreign secretary said that Russia had deliberately chosen the Soviet era nerve agent Novichok in the Salisbury attack as a warning to opponents of President Vladimir Putin.

"There is very little doubt in people's minds that this is a signature act by the Russia state deliberately using Novichok, a nerve agent developed by Russia to punish a Russian defector as they would see it, and in the run up to Vladimir Putin's election, the minister said.

"There is something in the kind of smug, sarcastic response that we've heard that indicates their fundamental guilt. They want to simultaneously deny it, yet at the same time to glory in it," he noted.

The foreign secretary added the UK government had been very heartened by the strength of the support around the world for Britain's stance against Russia.

After a French government spokesperson derided Britain's decision to act against the Kremlin as fantasy politics, Theresa May had another phone conversation with President Emmanuel Macron on the matter.

"France shares Britain's assessment that there is no other plausible explanation and reiterates its solidarity with its ally," Macron's spokesperson said, in an apparent attempt to distance from the earlier comments.