Australia Expels 2 Russian Diplomats Over UK Nerve Agent Attack

The Australian government on March 27 announced the expulsion of two Russian diplomats in support of a global effort against the Kremlin over an alleged nerve agent attack on a former spy who lived in Salisbury, the UK.Prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and foreign minister Julie Bishop said two Russian diplomats, who were identified as undeclared intelligence officers, had been ordered to leave Australia within a week.Turnbull said the March 4 nerve agent attack was a “shocking crime” that “cannot be tolerated by any sovereign nation.” He said the incident, along with the annexation of Crimea and the downing of a commercial airliner over eastern Ukraine, where 38 Australians died, formed a “pattern of recklessness and aggression by the Russian government.”Russian diplomats were also expelled from other countries including the UK, the US, Canada, Norway, Macedonia and a number of Euoprean Union countries, according to BBC. The Kremlin denied any involvement in the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal, who and his daughter, Yulia, remained in critical condition at the time of publication, The Guardian reported. Credit: Parliament of Australia via Storyful