Moscow strikes back at U.S., expels 60 diplomats
Russia will also close St. Petersburg consulate
Russia will expel 60 U.S. diplomats and close the U.S. Consulate in St. Petersburg in a “tit-for-tat” after Western responses to the poisoning of a former spy, Kremlin’s news agency Tass reported Thursday.
The Kremlin also summoned U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman so Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov could brief him “on the tit-for-tat steps against the U.S.,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.
The expulsion was expected. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that Russia would respond in a reciprocal manner after a mass expulsion of 150 Russian diplomats by the U.S. and 26 other countries. President Trump and leaders in Canada, Australia, NATO and Europe acted together in response to what they said was Russia’s poisoning March 4 of a former Russian double agent and his daughter in Britain.
Sergei Skripal, the former Russian spy who was convicted in Russia of providing information to the United Kingdom, remains in critical condition. His daughter Yulia was no longer in critical condition and was said to be improving rapidly Thursday, according to Reuters.
The last time the U.S. expelled Russian diplomats was in December 2016, when President Obama expelled 35 Russians he said had meddled in the presidential election that year. Russia retaliated by sending home 755 American diplomats.
Russia’s response “is calibrated to try & convince the US not to take additional punitive measures,” Brett Bruen, a staffer in Obama’s National Security Council, said on Twitter. “It’s significant enough to show strength at home, but really designed to ensure we dont continue to escalate the situation.”
On Monday, the Russian Embassy in Washington posted a Twitter poll asking “What US Consulate General would close in @Russia, if it was up to you to decide”? The consulate in St. Petersburg received 47% of the responses, far ahead of the consulates in Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok.