US to slap sanctions on Russia over nerve agent attack
What's the story
The US yesterday said it will impose tough new sanctions on Russia after determining that Moscow used a deadly military-grade nerve agent to kill a former Russian double agent and his daughter in the UK.
Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia Skripal were hospitalized in the UK in March. While Yulia was discharged in April, her father recovered and left the hospital in May.
Do you know?
What is a nerve agent attack?
Nerve agents, sometimes also called nerve gases, are a class of organic chemicals that disrupt the mechanisms by which nerves transfer messages to organs. Poisoning by a nerve agent leads to constriction of pupils, profuse salivation, convulsions, and involuntary urination and defecation.
Allegations
Russia rejects all allegations in the attack
The State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said, "The Russian government has used chemical or biological weapons ('Novichok' nerve agent) in violation of international law or has used lethal chemical or biological weapons against its own nationals on March 4 this year."
Russia has rejected allegations leveled by the UK that it was behind the deadly nerve agent attack in the English city of Salisbury.
Sanctions
Sanctions taken under Chemical and Biological Weapons Act of 1991
The State Department said the sanctions will take effect around August-22.
The sanctions are mandated under the Chemical and Biological Weapons and Warfare Elimination Act of 1991.
The first set of sanctions targets certain items the US exports to Russia that could have military uses.
Unless Russia takes certain steps, the second set of penalties, more stringent than this first-round, must follow, it said.
Information
Other countries also condemn Russia's alleged attack
Relations between Russia and the West hit a new low after the nerve agent attack in the UK. More than 20 countries expelled Russian envoys in solidarity with the UK.
US-Russia rivalry
60 Russians had been expelled from the US in March
In March, the Trump administration had ordered the expulsion of 60 Russians from the US.
Of the 60 expelled, 12 are intelligence operatives from the Russian Mission to the UN who have been accused of abusing their privilege of residence in America.
Russia had responded with a similar number of diplomatic expulsions and ordered the closure of the US consulate in Russia's St. Petersburg.