European Nations on the Move to Expel Russian Diplomats and Punish the Kremlin for its Hawkish Behavior

Photo Ukrinform

14 European nations have summoned the Russian ambassadors posted in their respective countries to eventually expel multiple Russian diplomats.

The recent poisoning of Sergey Skripal and his daughter in the United Kingdom have provoked a wave of indignation from the West as Putin’s Russia has provided no ‘credible’ explanation for what happened.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has already expelled 23 Russian diplomats assumed to be intelligence officers from the United Kingdom; a decision that was met in kind by Vladimir Putin who expelled the exact same number of British Diplomats from the Russian Federation.

The British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has directly pointed his finger at the Russian President, whom Johnson considers to be the man who has most likely called for the poisoning of the ex-Russian spy in Salisbury – an accusation that did not sit well back in Moscow.

The relationship between Russia and the West as a whole has been declining since 2008 and the Russian invasion of Georgia. An aggressive behavior towards its neighbors that Russia has continued to display in Ukraine with the annexation of Crimea in 2014, and the support of separatists in Eastern Ukraine. To top it off, Moscow is also held responsible for several Cyber-attacks both in the US and in Ukraine, as well as for meddling with the 2016 US Presidential elections.

Russia is the current target of stringent economic sanctions that, even though the government denies their impact, have an increasing effect of the Russian economy.

Even though Russia has denied any involvement with the Skripal case, the previous poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, in 2006, once again with a Russian-made agent clearly demonstrated to the world that the Kremlin does not fear using the most barbaric methods to eliminate those who fall into its disfavor. The similarities with Sergey Skripal and his daughter Yulia who have been poisoned with a Soviet-made agent are too screaming to be ignored.

The West rallying against Russia’s hostile behavior might serve as a lesson for Russian President Vladimir Putin, or to the contrary, infuriate him to the point of isolating its nation even further from the West, which the Russian government already hails as anti-Russian to its population in order to gain popularity.