Twenty-three expelled Russian diplomats and their families left London for Moscow on Tuesday as Britain and Russia traded recriminations over a nerve agent attack in England that has plunged relations into their worst crisis since the Cold War.
Prime Minister Theresa May blamed Russia for the attack on a Russian double-agent and his daughter — the first known offensive use of a nerve toxin in Europe since World War II — and gave 23 Russians whom she said were spies working under diplomatic cover one week to leave London.
Russia has repeatedly denied any involvement in the attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter and, in a reciprocal gesture on Saturday, gave 23 British diplomats a week to leave Moscow as well as closing the British Council in Russia.