Image copyright AFP Image caption Parts of the city of Salisbury were sealed off after the nerve agent attack

The US has said it will impose fresh sanctions on Russia after determining it used nerve agent against a former Russian double agent living in the UK. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said it had been determined that Russia “has used chemical or biological weapons in violation of international law, or has used lethal chemical or biological weapons against its own nationals.”

The sanctions would cover sensitive national-security controlled goods, a senior State Department official told reporters on a conference call, citing the 1991 Chemical and Biological Weapons and Warfare Elimination Act. Sergei Skripal, a former colonel in Russia’s GRU military intelligence service, and his 33-year-old daughter, Yulia, were found slumped unconscious on a bench in the southern English city of Salisbury in March after a liquid form of the Novichok type of nerve agent was applied to his home’s front door. The Kremlin on Thursday slammed as "unacceptable" US sanctions over Moscow's alleged involvement in a nerve agent attack in Britain, but said Russia still hopes for constructive relations with Washington. Following a 15-day congressional notification period, the sanctions will take effect on or around August 22, according to a statement from the State Department.
The United States imposes new sanctions on Russia after the use of a Novichok nerve agent in the United Kingdom. Yesterday, the UK said that they would seek extradition of suspects from Russia.