Putin hits back at US, cutting 755 personnel
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the US diplomatic missions in Moscow and elsewhere in the country will have to reduce their staffs by 755 people, signalling a significant escalation in the Russian response to American sanctions over the Kremlin’s intervention in the 2016 presidential election.
The United States and Russia have expelled dozens of each other’s diplomats before — but yesterday’s statement, made by Putin in an interview with the Rossiya-1 television channel, indicated the single largest forced reduction in embassy staff, comparable only to the closing of the American diplomatic presence in the months following the Communist revolution in 1917.
In the interview, Putin said that the number of American diplomatic and technical personnel will be capped at 455 — equivalent to the number of their Russian counterparts working in the US. Currently, close to 1200 employees work at the US Embassy and consulates in Russia, according to US and Russian data.
“More than a thousand employees — diplomats and technical employees — have worked and are still working in Russia these days,” Putin said. “Some 755 of them will have to terminate their activity.”
Putin’s remarks came during a trip by US Vice-President Mike Pence to Eastern Europe to show US support for countries that have chafed at interfer- ence from Moscow — Estonia, Georgia and Montenegro.
“The President has made it very clear that Russia’s destabilising activities, its support for rogue regimes, its activities in Ukraine are unacceptable,” Pence said. “The President made very clear that very soon he will sign the sanctions from the Congress.”
A senior State Department official said: “The Russian Government has demanded the US Mission to Russia limit total Mission staffing to 455 employees by September 1. ”
The US Embassy in Russia has been unable to provide exact numbers on the number of staff it employs in Russia. But according to a 2013 review by the State Department, of 1200 employees of the American Mission in Moscow, 333 were US nationals and 867 were foreign nationals, many of them probably local Russian support staff, including drivers, electricians, accountants and security guards.
The move comes as it has become apparent that Russia has abandoned its hopes for better relations with the US under the Trump Administration.
“I think retaliation is long, long overdue,” deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov told ABC. “We have a very rich toolbox at our disposal. After the Senate . . . voted so overwhelmingly on a completely weird and unacceptable piece of legislation, it was the last drop.”