Russia will expel 10 diplomats

The Russian government will expel 10 American diplomats and threatened to crack down on U.S.-funded nongovernmental organizations in retaliation for sanctions announced this week by the Biden administration, Russia’s foreign minister said Friday.

The foreign ministry also offered what it called a suggestion that the American ambassador temporarily return to Washington, and it banned entry into Russia

by eight current and former U.S. officials, Sergey Lavrov, the foreign minister, said.

The response, mirroring the diplomatic rebuke by the United States from the day before, suggested the Russian government did not intend an escalation that could worsen dismal relations between the countries. Those relations have frayed in part over Russian cyberattacks and interference in American elections.

President Joe Biden had indicated that the new U.S. sanctions would signal a harder line toward

Moscow, although he left a door open for dialogue. Lavrov called the sanctions an “absolutely unfriendly and unprovoked action.”

But with the Russian response to them largely limited to the expulsions and travel bans, it appears the Kremlin does not intend to raise the diplomatic stakes and may remain open to the invitation to a summit meeting, possibly this summer, that Biden extended to President Vladimir Putin this week.

The Biden administration expelled 10 diplomats from the Russian Embassy in Washington and sanctioned 32 entities and individuals for disinformation efforts and carrying out interference in the 2020 presidential election.

The Russian foreign ministry said in a statement that the U.S. officials banned from entering the country included the director of the FBI, Christopher Wray; the director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines; Attorney General Merrick Garland; and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Others to face an entry ban include the director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Michael

Carvajal; the Domestic Policy Council director, Susan Rice; John Bolton, a former national security adviser; and a former director of the CIA, James Woolsey.

Timothy Frye, a Columbia University political scientist, noted Biden chose not to target the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline to Germany or go after large Russian state-controlled companies.“That’s part of the broader strategy of using sanctions but also reaching out to the Kremlin to propose talks on strategic stability and eventually on a summit,” he said.