WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in Britain amounts to “attempted murder” by the Russian government.
In remarks to reporters at the Pentagon on Tuesday, Mattis said the attack, which has triggered a worldwide wave of expulsions of Russian diplomats, involved the “pretty obvious” use of a chemical agent. He said it was the first chemical weapon attack in Europe since World War II.
Asked whether this amounted to an act of war, Mattis said it is part of a pattern of Russian actions that President Vladimir Putin apparently believes can be plausibly denied. Mattis cited as examples Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and its military intervention in eastern Ukraine, as well as its interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
