LONDON: Russian diplomats expelled from Britain in the worsening spat over the poisoning of a former double agent left the London embassy on Tuesday with their families in tow.
Britain has thrown out Russian 23 diplomats over the March 4 nerve agent attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in an English town. People hugged outside the embassy before boarding a waiting fleet of diplomatic vehicles.
Around 80 people in total were thought to be leaving.
The expulsion came as British police said the investigation into the poisoning could take months to complete, while Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson accused Russia of “trying to conceal the needle of truth in a haystack of lies”.
The first offensive use of chemical weapons in Europe since World War II has plunged relations between Moscow and London into crisis.
Britain says only Russia had the capability, motive and intent to be behind the attack, which used the nerve agent Novichok reportedly developed by the former Soviet Union. Russia denies any responsibility.
The British police investigation is ploughing through 4,000 hours of security camera footage, said counter-terror chief Neil Basu.
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