Nato’s leading powers closed ranks against Vladimir Putin on Thursday as the US unveiled new sanctions against Moscow and joined France and Germany to back Britain’s accusations against the Kremlin for the poisoning of a former Russian spy on UK soil.
The Trump administration appeared to shed its ambivalence towards Moscow by placing sanctions on five groups and 19 individuals, accusing them of staging a series of cyber attacks on US energy, nuclear and aviation infrastructure, the toughest measures taken since Donald Trump took office.
Mr Trump also signed an unusually strong statement that accused Russia of being behind the “first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since the second world war” in the attempted murder of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury on March 4.