To be worried about the Russian retaliation?

[alligatortoss]

just think you don’t fuck around with them. Anything could happen

NoWs, it has been identified as weapons grade material only produced in the Soviet Union. So when TM says it was either Russia authorised or the Russians have lost control of it, that is why she pins it on Russia.
Either one of those two hypotheses works or she is lying and the zombies attempted to murder him. Which do you think?

I stopped watching the news and reading newspapers a few years ago .. when my kids were small I used to be in a frenzy of anxiety about stuff like this ... none of it ever happened ... pour yourself a drink , put on music, make some nice food!! Have a news blackout ... journalists are a pack of parasites .. I'm sure if anything terrible really happened we'd find out on here or Facebook!!!!

The Russians thought we wouldn’t be able to trace the nerve agent conclusively that their first mistake.
Their second mistake was not to assist with the investigation. Instead choosing to be defensive and offensive.

Clearly Russia are not even attempting to pretend they are a civilised nation anymore, there is no effort to conduct themselves with any integrity or responsibility.

Any country using nerve agents used in mass chemical warfare to kill people in another country is asking for trouble. It is an act of war.

Of course the UK government need to in the strongest terms respond. I would prefer to see all diplomats expelled and a full withdrawal from the World Cup.

Ahhh ok sorry, that’s what I’ve missed! I hadn’t heard that it was only produced in the Soviet Union!

It will be interesting to see how Putin reacts to this and how far he is actually going to take things. I doubt that he will go quietly but I don’t think he will do anything really drastic either.

According to the metro the way the Russians told us to bog off was "that s not the way to talk to a nuclear super power"

Hopefully he won’t turn off the gas at the weekend, it’s looking chilly

user1474652148 they weren't trying to hide it, they wanted everyone to know it was them, that's the whole point of it.
If you are an enemy, you are not safe anywhere.
Putin is laughing at everyone.

@scaryteacher I didn't say the EU has anything to do with the EU, I'm well aware of the difference between the EU and NATO thanks. I said the Russia situation and our response etc has everything to do with the EU and vice versa.

anything to do with NATO I mean

sleep5
The EU probably won't do anything as they're happy making the point that the UK is alone with Brexit.
Several EU nations have a land border with Russia, believe me that Russia is a big concern for EU member states. Putin is not just manipulating things in the UK, he has had a hand in several former communist countries electing right wing governments notably Poland and Hungary. Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are all EU members and have had incidents of Russian incursions on their borders. Trump has scared them badly by stating that NATO was pointless and he didn't agree with the US being a part of it.
Sweden and Finland have also had the same treatment, airspace and territorial waters incursions as has happened several times in the last few years in the UK. They are testing the defences, practising moving around undetected (they can) and testing the reactions to these things.
Divided we fall.

andante57 I’m growing very disillusioned with Jeremy Corbyn. I voted for him in the Labour leadership elections because I believed him to be a man of principle having been on the right side of history on many occasions in the past. It seems his principles only extend to those who are not his mates though like everyone else.

It's not a good time to be on bad terms with the neighbours in Europe. The longest period of peace Europe has ever known could end if we don't work together to isolate Russia. Brexit doesn't prevent that but personally I think that we the UK need to be wary of how we deal with the EU as it could come back and bite us on the arse if we just give them two fingers. We shouldn't burn our bridges.

Booting out RT (and Russia in turn booting out the BBC) will have less impact than it once did anyway, thanks to the internet.

NoSwsForYou I thought that the analysis concluded it was pretty certain it originated in Russia, but that doesn't necessarily mean Putin was behind it. Of course the alternative is that they "lost control of it" and it fell into the wrong hands before being used without Putin's knowledge, which isn't great either tbh.

FACT. Putin is a very NAUGHTY boy.

Seems slightly odd that such a huge brouhaha is being made of this incident (even though no one has actually even died yet) and yet when the same thing happened to Alexander Litvinenko it was all rather played down and ignored by comparison.

It’s ten years on and Putin has been involved in many grey areas and it’s been ignore it can’t be any longer

And yes Corbyn has shot himself in the foot hardly surprised by his response

Also seems bit odd when you consider that Putin is supremely politically powerful in Russia, these dissidents pose no significant threat to him. Also all his oligarch, gangster cronies put billions of pounds through the London laundromat, why would he want to risk upsetting that cosy little arrangement?

I don’t think he expected such a response

Sall because the Russian economy is in the toilet and he is trying to distract the Russian people. This makes him look powerful.

The Russians thought we wouldn’t be able to trace the nerve agent conclusively that their first mistake.

Really? I thought the entire reason they used a military level chemical weapon to knock off two individuals was so that we'd all know about it. It sends two messages. One, to any other ex spies on their hit list: We're coming for you, and the people who will do it are not lone rangers, they've got the full backing and resources of the government and military. And two, to us: Don't get in our way.

and yet when the same thing happened to Alexander Litvinenko it was all rather played down and ignored by comparison.

Was it? I seem to recall more outcry last time.

Of course they knew it could be traced it was a message of how powerful they are

because the Russian economy is in the toilet and he is trying to distract the Russian people. This makes him look powerful.

But that's stupid. The analogy is if Jimmy Saville escaped to Benidorm, and Theresa May offed him as a "show of power". Still wouldn't make anyone vote for her that wasn't already planning to. It doesn't make any sense for him to have done it. I reckon someone else got hold of it.

I remember huge outcry over Litvinenko.
The Ruskies reserve their worst for their own people. Which is some kind of consolation, I suppose.

Why can't UK ban Russians from owning property in London? That's my proposed sanction. I don't know what law it would violate.