On Monday, British Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed what many already suspected: A Russian-made nerve agent was used to try to kill Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, England. Given the nature of the weapon, May concluded, either the Russian government sanctioned the attack or it has lost control of its stock of this extraordinarily lethal substance. Moscow is still refusing to provide a straight answer.

A similar question was asked 12 years ago following the discovery that the volatile radioactive substance polonium 210 was used to murder another Russian, Alexander Litvinenko, in London. British forensic scientists were ultimately able to determine which Russian reactor the polonium had come from. The then-government’s reluctance to pursue the matter forcefully arose from a hope that relations with Russia might be repaired. This was forlorn and, with the benefit of hindsight, now looks naïve.

In Moscow, British inaction was read as acquiescence to an extraordinary and unprecedented violation of our own and international law. Two years later Russia invaded its southern neighbour, Georgia, again counting on Western passivity. That calculation proved correct. Since then, Russia has annexed Crimea, shot down a Malaysian Airlines flight killing everyone on board, invaded Ukraine, and kidnapped an Estonian official. Then in 2015, the Kremlin intervened in Syria to prop up the country’s beleaguered dictator, Bashar Assad. The West’s shameful failure to take action following Assad’s use of nerve agents to murder children in their homes was also noted in Moscow.

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