Russian Spy Attack: PM Prepares Reprisals as Deadline Passes

Theresa May is preparing to chair a meeting of the national security council after the midnight deadline she set Moscow over the spy poisoning case passed, The Guardian writes. 

The prime minister is preparing to set out a range of reprisals against the Russian state, including calls for fresh sanctions, visa bans and crackdowns on Russian money in the UK. She is expected to set out plans to build a coalition of international support - from the European Union, Nato and even the United Nations - to rein in Russia over time.

May will put her proposals to the national security committee on Wednesday before briefing MPs in a statement that could set the course for UK foreign policy for years to come.

Earlier on Tuesday Donald Trump, gave May his full support for her strategy of confronting Russia over the poisoning of double agent Sergei Skripal, saying he is "with the UK all the way".

The US president's backing came in a phone call after he had said that it was conditional on the facts supporting the British prime minister's case. Downing Street said Trump had agreed that "the Russian government must provide unambiguous answers as to how this nerve agent came to be used".

May has already received strong support from key European leaders and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the body responsible for the control of chemical weapons.

The package of measures May is contemplating came in the face of a warning by Maria Zakharova, the Russian foreign affairs ministry spokeswoman, that Britain must not try to scare Moscow, pointing to Vladimir Putin's recent speech in which he presented a range of new nuclear weapons

The Russian embassy in London made clear that it...