Dealing with Russia, Theresa May finds herself alone at home

Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May. (Source: Reuters) 

How should the UK react to the attempted murder in Salisbury? A cyberattack on Moscow? Further sanctions? Whatever the action, Theresa May is missing partners. Brexit has already rendered the UK isolated, says Barbara Wesel.

Theresa May has to be tough now. The heinous attack against a Russian-born naturalized citizen and his daughter on British soil has caused public outrage. The chemical warfare agent that was used has now been identified as a Russian-produced super poison; Russian President Vladimir Putin is suspected of having at least sanctioned the attack on former double agent Sergei Skripal, if not personally ordering it himself. The British government finds itself suspended between anger and helplessness.

Theresa May and the lack of credibility 

When another Russian ex-spy and Kremlin critic – Alexander Litvinenko – was assassinated in 2006, Theresa May was still Minister of the Interior. She endlessly dragged out the case just to avoid messing with Moscow. It took nearly a decade to determine the Kremlin’s involvement in the murder.

Since then, there have been at least a dozen other suspicious deaths of Russian citizens in the UK, all classified as coincidences and downplayed by the government. But that response should be over now. May is now under enormous pressure from her own party to react with appropriate harshness to Moscow’s provocations. And the prime minister somehow needs to restore her credibility.

“Little Moscow” on the Thames 

The UK has created the basis for its current problems with Putin. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, it opened its doors to the Russian robber barons, as long as they brought enough money. In their wake came dissidents, active and former spies, and dodgy profiteers. “Little Moscow” on the Thames became a huge money laundering machine and the British capital benefited from the newly rich Russians.

Meanwhile, the “Russian Connection” has long arrived in the establishment. A former Putin confidant bought a British newspaper; the Conservatives have received almost a million individual political party contributions from Russian citizens in recent years. And Russia Today’s broadcasts are teeming with British opposition politicians.