Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has labelled Russia's counter-measures "futile" as the diplomatic row over the nerve agent attack on a Russian ex-spy in the UK rumbles on.
Johnson said the Kremlin's tit-for-tat expulsion of 23 British diplomats and the closures of the British consulate in St Petersburg and the British Council would only impact Vladimir Putin's compatriots.
Writing in the Sun on Sunday two weeks after the March 4 incident, Johnson said: "These futile measures will only punish ordinary Russians by depriving them of harmless opportunities to learn English and apply for UK visas.
"Today Russia stands alone and isolated.
"That fact demonstrates the most telling difference between Britain and Putin: we have friends across the world and he does not."
Prime Minister Theresa May said earlier Britain and its allies would consider their next move and that the national security council would meet early next week.
Former double agent Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, remain in a critical condition in hospital, while Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, who was exposed to the Novichok nerve agent while responding to the incident, is no longer considered critical.
Early on Saturday, Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced it had ordered the British diplomats to leave within a week and indicated it could take further action should there be what it called more "unfriendly" moves.
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