UK’s response to Salisbury poisoning leaves Russia ‘infatuated’, says Irish PM | Business Newsletter

Irish Prime Minister Michael Martin said Britain’s response to the Salisbury poisoning had “enthralled Moscow” and demonstrated Europe’s satisfaction over the security threat posed by Vladimir Putin.

Russian agents plot to kill former Soviet spy Sergei Skripal with the nerve agent Novichok in the town of Wiltshire in March 2018.

Mr Skripal, his daughter Yulia and police officer Nick Bailey were seriously ill as a result of the attack but all three survived. Three months later, a British woman Dawn Sturgess died after handling a discarded bottle believed to contain Novichok.

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The UK accused two GRU agents of carrying out the attack, and in response, Theresa May’s government expelled 153 Russian diplomats and announced limited sanctions, including a diplomatic boycott. for Russia’s World Cup.

The attacks took place 12 years after the assassination of Alexander Litvinenko in London using radioactive polonium by Russian agents.

Discussing Europe’s response to the invasion of Ukraine at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mr. Martin said both attacks were an example of European nations not reacting strongly enough to the conflict. threat from Moscow.

“When you look back at Salisbury, or you look at polonium in London… I saw the documentary for the first time recently and it blew my mind, it’s a public health attack on citizens. Europe in the UK,” he said.

“It’s horrible that they’re aiming to kill one individual, but there’s a broader public health threat to a lot of people, and some of the diplomats have been sent home and sort of. so.

“In hindsight, one can indulge too much, we can get complacent and hope that the better side of a country will eventually emerge. We can’t take it for granted anymore. .”

Mr. Martin was speaking with his counterparts from the Netherlands and Slovakia, both of whom called for a stronger and more unified European Union response to Russian aggression.

Eduard Heger, the prime minister of Slovakia, told Sky News that his country cannot let Ukraine, which shares a border, lose. “If Ukraine fails, we will be next,” he said.

“If they fail, we know that Russia will go further. So this is really important. And we have to understand, especially in the European Union, because we are a unity. at the end of the day.

“We need to support Ukraine because if they fail, it will threaten us: Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia. So there are a number of reasons why we need to help them. But mainly. is that they are fighting for our values.”

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said that Russia’s action will push the EU to use its stronger economic power to ensure that potential partners share its values.

“For too long the EU has been a playground, not a player,” he said. “We need to step up our game. We are working hard to keep the alliance together on Ukrainian soil, but we have to take advantage of the strength of the internal market.

“We have the strongest market in history and everyone wants to be more connected to it, so we needed to ask what we wanted in return.

“We also need a stronger foreign policy response, and that means the largest countries in the EU, Italy, France and Germany, may have to give up some sovereignty over their foreign policy.” Of course, we will have a separate foreign policy because we are sovereign states, but that is what we need if we want to leverage the collective power of the EU.”

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Mr Martin also criticized the UK’s approach to Brexit, saying it had made EU membership more popular in Ireland.

“The Brexit experience has actually developed stronger pro-European views because people just look at Brexit and say no, we don’t want that in any way or form because it’s not up yet. Well planned or prepared, with due respect to our neighbours, that didn’t go well with Irish public opinion.”