Diplomats sent home

Russia retaliates

RUSSIA has announced the expulsion of more than 150 diplomats, including 60 Americans, yesterday and said it was closing a US consulate in retaliation for the wave of Western expulsions of Russian diplomats over the poisoning of an ex-spy and his daughter in Britain.

The Russian move came as a hospital treating Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia said the woman was improving rapidly and was now in a stable condition, though her father remained in critical condition.

The Skripals were found unconscious and critically ill in the English city of Salisbury on March 4. British authorities blamed Russia for poisoning them with a military-grade nerve agent, accusations Russia has vehemently denied.

Two dozen countries, including the US, many EU nations and NATO, have ordered more than 150 Russian diplomats out this week in a show of solidarity with Britain — a massive action unseen even at the height of the Cold War.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said yesterday that Moscow will expel the same number of diplomats from each of those countries in retaliation.

US Ambassador Jon Huntsman was summoned to the Foreign Ministry while Mr Lavrov was speaking, where he was handed notice that Russia is responding quid pro quo to the US decision to order 60 Russian diplomats out.

In a statement, Mr Huntsman said there was “no justification” for the move and that it shows Moscow isn’t interested in dialogue with the United States about important matters.

The Foreign Ministry said the US diplomats, including 58 from the embassy in Moscow and two from the consulate in Yekaterinburg, must leave Russia by April 5. It added that the US must leave its consulate in St Petersburg no later than today.

Mr Lavrov emphasised that the expulsions followed “brutal pressure” from the US and Britain, which forced their allies to “follow the anti-Russian course”.