In a major diplomatic boost for Theresa May, President Donald Trump and the other world leaders swiftly signed a joint statement of solidarity with the PM.
In it, they pledged their “full confidence” in the bombshell finding that the Russian military intelligence agency was behind the Skripal assassination bid.
And in a deep embarrassment for President Putin personally, the five declared the outrage “was almost certainly approved at a senior government level”.
The leaders added: “Yesterday’s announcement further strengthens our intent to continue to disrupt together the hostile activities of foreign intelligence networks on our territories”.
As a first step in the blitz on the GRU, Whitehall sources said the five nations will start pooling all their intelligence on the Moscow-based spy service, including its officers’ identities and ongoing operations.
The PM was delighted with the powerful and immediate display of solidarity, having telephoned each of the leaders to ask for their help.
Mrs May tweeted: “My thanks to @EmmanuelMacron , Chancellor Merkel, @realDonaldTrump and @JustinTrudeau for standing shoulder to shoulder with the UK in response to the despicable use of a chemical nerve agent in Salisbury”.
There were also bitter clashes between Russia and Britian, plus her allies, at the UN Security Council in New York on Thursday afternoon.
The UK heaped pressure on Moscow by calling an emergency meeting to discuss the police’s bombshell findings about who did the Salisbury attack.
Meanwhile, government ministers here heaped personal blame on Vladimir Putin.
Security Minister Ben Wallace went further than the PM to say the pariah Russian president “bears very strong responsibility” for the nerve agent attack, as he the shadowy military intelligence agency answers to him.
At the UN, the UK’s ambassador Karen Pierce accused Moscow of having “played dice with the lives of the people of Salisbury”.
She added of Russia’s bosses: “They work in a parallel universe where the normal rules of international affairs are inverted”.
That sparked a fiery response from the country’s UN ambassador at the Security Council’s table.
Vasily Nebenzya accused Britain of “the same repeated lies” from March, as he attempted to pick holes in the police’s story.
Mr Nebenzya raged: “The number of consistencies with this so called evidence is off the charts.
“This story was invented from thin air.
“Why would Russia want to poison the Skripals, and in such as strange way? “London needs this story for one purpose – to unleash a disgusting anti-Russian hysteria.”
But America’s UN ambassador Nikki Haley hit back at him: “No one’s buying it.
“Our British colleagues are providing a masterclass in how to stop the spread of chemical weapons.”
The Russian Embassy in London also mounted a major attempt to discredit the police and intelligence agencies’ findings about the GRU.
It bombarded Twitter with abuse, including a suggestion their conclusions were as faulty as the Iraq War intelligence on Saddam’s WMDs.
Veteran Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov branded the police’s conclusions “an invention”, and suggested it was a conspiracy theory plucked “from the internet”.
Russia’s largely state-supporting media suggested the announcement’s timing was a deliberate ploy by struggling Mrs May to distract from her Brexit troubles.
MPs urged Mrs May to go further and freeze Puti’sn crony oligarchs’ billions in London.
Assassin Petrov in Stalin link
KREMLIN assassin Alexander Petrov was the grandson of a hitman in Joseph Stalin’s notorious SMERSH spy-killing unit, it was claimed on Thursday.
Supposed “investigative reporter” Sergey Kanev suggested Petrov, believed to be 39, belonged to a dynasty of loyal counter-intelligence agents.
His grandad was said to be Ivan Starchenko, a commander of SMERSH’s 31st “Death to Spies” brigade in the Ukraine during World War Two.
His gran, named as Nadezhda Moroz, was believed to be a clerk-typist for the same rifle division. She was awarded a medal “For Military Merit” in November 1943.
Tyrant Stalin set up SMERSH a year earlier.
Commons Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Tom Tugendhat called on No10 to “hit Putin where it hurts, in the pocket”.
While the world stood strong against Russia, Jeremy Corbyn and his chief spin doctor were blasted by their own Labour MPs for failing to directly blame Russia for the outrage.
Senior Labour MP Mike Gapes criticised his hard left leader’s spokesman Seumas Milne for defending Russia, and called for him to resign.
Ilford South MP Mr Gapes said: “Seumas Milne has been dissembling and attempting to divert attention from the real culprit, which is Putin’s regime in Moscow.
“I believe we would be in a much better place if we had people working for our party leadership who actually believed in our Labour values.”
Conservative MP Bob Seely added about Mr Milne: “He is at best a useful idiot and, at worst, something much worse”.
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