Russia is expelling 150 diplomats in retaliation for Western expulsions

Russia to close US consulate in St. Petersburg, expel 60 diplomats as Washington did – Lavrov

29 Mar, 2018

Russia will expel sixty US diplomats and close the US consulate in St. Petersburg, in a response mirroring the mass expulsion of Russian diplomats initiated by the US and UK, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

US ambassador to Moscow, Jon Huntsman, has been summoned to the Foreign Ministry and told the news by deputy FM Sergey Ryabkov, Lavrov said at the press conference following a meeting with the special UN envoy for Syriaea Staffan De Mistura.

Read more at https://www.rt.com/news/422720-russia-us-closes-consulate/

Russia to Expel 60 U.S. Diplomats; Tensions Are Worst in Decades

March 29, 2018

Russia on Thursday escalated a confrontation with Europe and the United States over the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain, saying it would expel 60 American diplomats and an unspecified number of envoys from other countries to retaliate for a mass expulsion of Russian diplomats working in the West and beyond that was ordered this week.
Furious at what it described as an anti-Russian campaign orchestrated by Washington and London, the Kremlin exceeded an equivalent response to the United States and ordered the closing of the American C onsulate in St. Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city. The consulate is bigger and far more important to relations than the Russian Consulate in Seattle, which the Trump administration ordered closed on Monday as part of its expulsion decree.

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Read more at https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/29/world/europe/russia-expels-diplomats.html?emc=edit_na_20180329&nl=breaking-news&nlid=60114417ing-news&ref=cta&mtrref=undefined&gwh=9F086EE46D7237F4FED13A08BBE0540E&gwt=pay