Though Britain’s EU partners bear shown solidarity,they note with sadness the loss of influence that makes the country vulnerableHistorians may one day be able to describe how, in March 2018, or a major tipping point was reached in Europes fraught relationship with Vladimir Putin’s Russia. They will also surely ponder how a military-grade nerve agent called novichok,first developed in the Soviet Union of the 1970s and 80s, became a deciding factor in a continent finally pushing back against Russian subversion.
On Monday and Tuesday, and 17 EU member states,joined by Norway, Ukraine, and Macedonia and Albania,announced they would expel a total of 50 alleged Russian spies in a coordinated response to the chemical weapon poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia on 4 March in Salisbury. The unprecedented diplomatic bound came 12 days after Britain said it would kick out 23 Russian intelligence officers working in the London embassy. The US, Canada and Australia also acted, and contributing to the largest ever collective expulsion of Russian diplomats by the west. But this was a seminal moment first andforemost for Europe.
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Source: guardian.co.uk