The expulsion of Russian diplomats from the UK, US and several other NATO states has cast a light on the world of espionage. DW looks at why spies are allowed to even operate in a targeted country in the first place.
Image: Getty Images/C. Somodevilla
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At least 25 countries have joined the UK in expelling Russian diplomats in response to the nerve agent attack on former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury earlier this month.
The UK is convinced agents backed by Russia were behind the attack. Its allies in the European Union and NATO appear to agree.
The UK has welcomed the actions taken by its allies and even seen it as a victory in its diplomatic spat with Russia. British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on Wednesday described the mass expulsions as "a blow from which Russian intelligence will need many years to recover."
Russian diplomats expelled
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The sheer tally of suspected spies operating in NATO countries has been striking. In total, nearly 150 Russian officers have been ordered to return to Russia for their alleged spying — 23 of which were dispatched from Britain and 60 from the US.
The mass expulsion of Russian officers has cast a light on the unspoken but still widely practiced East-West spy game, a remnant of the Cold War era.
Why do countries allow spies to work within their borders?
Although the world of international spying remains murky and oftentimes illegal, it continues to be widely accepted largely thanks to a "gentlemen's agreement," according to Anthony Glees, Director of the Center for Security and Intelligence Studies at the University of Buckingham.
"Since it is widely known that embassies will always employ so-called intelligence officers, a sort of nonaggression pact has grown between states … in which governments agree to essentially cast a blind eye on each other for mutual advantage," Glees told DW.
In effect, governments have to allow spies within their country, if they also want to their spies to operate abroad. What's left is a game of whose secret service can rack up the most intelligence.
There is, of course, also a legal statute underpinning the nature of espionage. Since spies work under the guise of diplomats for their home country, they are granted diplomatic immunity, and a degree of protection, under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
"Intelligence workers must first break a law in order to suffer the consequences," Christopher Nehring, Head of Research at the German Spy Museum in Berlin, told DW. "If the host country merely identifies someone as an employee of a secret service, then that isn't a criminal offense in itself — only spy-related activities, such as recruiting sources, installing of espionage technology, or similar would be considered illegal."
Governments don't want to expel foreign spies
That so many countries followed the UK in expelling Russian state actors comes as a major diplomatic coup for British Prime Minister Theresa May. Most governments often don't even want to expel foreign spies based in their country as this risks retaliation and more political unknowns.
On the domestic front, the government will no longer keep track of an identified intelligence worker by expelling him or her, which in turn means it can no longer collect information about them and the adversary state. It's then up to the domestic government to identify the new spies who will ultimately take their place.
By deciding to expel such large a number of diplomats all at once, Nehring explained, the UK and the US have, in a sense, shown their hands to the Russian government. "If so many people are unmasked and expelled at once, it also shows that you have access to the internal workings of your opponent," he said, adding that, following the expulsions, Russia will likely revise spying operations in its foreign embassies and seek out completely new and unknown intelligence sources.
The Skripal case
Given the nature of the espionage game, the mass expulsions underline the severity of the Skripal incident. After all, what happened in Salisbury went beyond just spying.
According to Glees, the poisoning demonstrates how Russian intelligence gathering has not only picked up, but become increasingly threatening in recent years. "Russia has abandoned communism but it has not abandoned the concept of an intelligence and security community that will stop at nothing to safeguard the Russian state and the personal position of [President Vladimir] Putin, the former KGB officer," he said.
By coordinating the expulsion of Russian agents, NATO members have recognized and acknowledged what they view as the deadly nature of Moscow's spying methods and the overstepping of the "gentlemen's agreement."
Russian spy poisoning: How it unfolded
The poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal has caused a standoff between Russia and the UK. Russia has denied knowledge of the poisoning but that hasn't stopped other countries taking action.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/G. Caddick
Ex-Russian spy poisoned
On March 4, former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his 33-year-old daughter were found slumped on a bench outside a shopping center in the British town of Salisbury. Authorities said both were in a critical condition after being exposed to an "unknown substance." Skripal was a former general of Russian military intelligence who had been convicted in Russia for spying for the UK.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Tass
Russia denies involvement
Russia denied any knowledge of the poisoning, which echoed the murder of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in 2006. Litvinenko was poisoned with radioactive polonium-210. "We see that such a tragic situation happened," Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on March 6. "But we don't have information about what could be the cause, what this person did."
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/TASS/M. Metzel
Nerve agent suspected
On March 7, British police said they suspected a very rare nerve agent was behind the poisoning of Skripal. "This is being treated as a major incident involving attempted murder by administration of a nerve agent," Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner Mark Rowley said in a statement. "I can also confirm that we believe the two people originally who became unwell were targeted specifically."
British police said more than 21 people had sought medical treatment as a result of the nerve agent attack. On March 8, UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd told the House of Commons that enormous resources were being used to determine who was behind the attack. Rudd called the use of a chemical nerve agent on British soil a "brazen and reckless" act that would be answered with all possible force.
Image: picture-alliance/empics/A. Matthews
May gives Russia a deadline
On March 12, British Prime Minister Theresa May told lawmakers it was "highly likely" Russia was behind the poisoning. May said the Russian government had either ordered the attack or lost control of the Russian-produced chemical nerve agent Novichok. She gave Moscow until midnight on Tuesday to explain its Novichok program to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/empics/PA Wire
EU supports UK
On March 13, vice president of the European Commission European Union, Valdis Dombrovskis, said the EU would stand in solidarity with Britain after London accused Russia of being behind the nerve agent attack. When asked if the EU might impose sanctions of Russia if it was agreed Moscow was responsible for the attack, Dombrovskis said: "Of course, the UK can count on EU solidarity in this regard."
Image: picture-alliance/empics/Y. Mok
Russia calls UK bluff
Russia failed to respond to May’s midnight deadline for an explanation of its suspected involvement in the poisoning. On March 14, a spokesperson for the Russian Embassy in London said Moscow would not respond "until it receives samples of the chemical substance." May had said a "full range" of retaliatory measures would be considered if Moscow did not give a "credible response" by the deadline.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/F. Augstein
UK announces expulsions of diplomats
After Russia failed to give an explanation, May announced on March 14 that the UK would expel 23 Russian diplomats identified as "undeclared intelligence officers." May also said the UK would suspend all high-level bilateral contact with Russia. The biggest expulsions from London in 30 years would "fundamentally degrade Russian intelligence capability for years to come," May said.
Image: picture alliance/TASS/dpa/I. Dmitryachev
France, Germany, UK, US blame Russia
On March 15, the leaders of France, Germany, the UK and US released a joint statement that demanded "complete disclosure" from Russia saying there is "no plausible alternative" to Moscow's involvement. The statement said the attack using "a military-grade nerve agent, of a type developed by Russia" constituted "an assault on UK sovereignty" that threatened "the security of us all."
Image: picture alliance/NurPhoto/A. Pezzali
Russia expels British diplomats
In retaliation to the UK, Russia said it would also expel 23 British diplomats, giving them the same one-week deadline. Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it would also close the British Council in Russia, and might take further measures against Britain in the event of more "hostile steps" from London. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, had said Moscow would "of course" respond with expulsions.
"It's complete drivel, rubbish, nonsense that somebody in Russia would allow themselves to do such a thing ahead of elections and the World Cup," Putin said on March 19. "It's quite obvious that if it were a military-grade nerve agent, people would have died on the spot." Putin said Moscow "destroyed all our chemical weapons under international oversight unlike some of our partners."
Image: Getty Images/AFP/M. Klimentyev
UK says Novichok was used
On March 20, UK scientists determined Skripal was poisoned using a little-known nerve agent from a group of chemical compounds known as Novichok. The family of compounds, which were developed in the 1970s and 80s, comprise numerous nerve agents. The Soviets once developed these weapons to circumvent the Chemical Weapons Convention. Novichok-5 and Novichok-7 are supposed to be the most dangerous.
Image: Getty Images/C.J. Ratcliffe
Mass Russian diplomat expulsions
A number of EU countries teamed together on March 26 and simultaneously announced they would be expelling Russian diplomats. Germany, France, Poland, Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands, Latvia and Ukraine all announced they would be expelling Russian envoys. The US followed suit with the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats and announced the closure of Moscow's consulate in Seattle.
Image: Reuters/G. Garanich
Poison on front door
UK police found the highest concentration of the nerve agent on the front door of the Skripal's family home in Salisbury. They believe that is where Skripal and his daughter must have first come into contact with the poison. It was likely mixed in with a "gloopy substance" smeared on the door handle.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/AP/F. Augstein
New Novichok victims
In early July, weeks after both Skripals were discharged from the Salisbury hospital, another two people were apparently poisoned with the same substance in the nearby town of Amesbury. A 45-year-old man and a 44-year-old woman were found unconscious and were transported to the same hospital in critical condition.
