UK seeks support from Tanzania, other countries in confronting Russia

Dar es Salaam. The United Kingdom High Commission in Tanzania is rallying the support of Tanzania and other countries in the European Union as well as NATO in confronting Russia following a military grenade attack on Britons.

The UK High Commissioner to Tanzania, Sarah Cooke said on Friday that her mission was seeking audience with the Tanzanian government in the wider efforts to win the support of partners saying Russia's action was a threat to the common security of the member countries in the EU and to international law.

"There is no alternative conclusion other than that the Russian State was culpable for the attempted murder of Mr Skripal and his daughter--and for threatening the lives of other British citizens in Salisbury, including Detective Sargent Bailey, the British police officer who was also exposed in the attack," said Ms Cooke in a statement she read to the local media in Dar es Salaam.

Earlier, it had been reported that Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned last weekend in United Kingdom, with a military grenade argent of a type said to be developed by Russia. Mr Skripal and his daughter remain critically ill in hospital.

"This was a direct act by the Russian State against our country," she said, charging that the Russian government has lost control of this potentially catastrophic damaging nerve agent and allowed it to get into the hands of others.

"Russia has offered no explanation as to how this nerve agent came to be used in the UK. And no explanation as to why Russia has an undeclared chemical weapons programme in contravention of international law," she said.