Russia will expel 60 US diplomats and close the US Consulate in St. Petersburg, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Thursday, in retaliation for a similar move by Washington.
Lavrov said US Ambassador Jon Huntsman had been summoned to the Foreign Ministry to be told of the decision. The 60 diplomats — 58 from the US mission in Moscow and two from Yekaterinburg — were declared “persona non grata” for activities “incompatible with diplomatic status,” the ministry said.
Russia has been on the defensive since the UK government openly blamed Moscow for the poisoning of a former Russian double agent, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter, Yulia Skripal, on British soil on March 4.
More than 20 nations, including long-term allies like the United States, have backed Britain by together expelling more than 100 Russian diplomats. The United States expelled 60 on Monday as part of the coordinated global response.
Russia has firmly denied responsibility for the poisoning and President Vladimir Putin has dismissed accusations his country was involved as “delirium.”
Russia had already been engaged in a tit-for-tat with Britain, with both countries expelling 23 diplomats each, and Russia closing some British institutions in the country.
Speaking in Moscow, Lavrov also threatened to respond to all countries that expelled Russian diplomats, Russian state-run media Tass reported. Among them are major European Union economies, including Germany and France.
Yulia Skripal ‘stable’
UK Prime Minister Theresa May accused Russia of using a military-grade Novichok nerve agent for the poisoning, in the English cathedral city of Salisbury on March 4.
Sergei Skripal, 66, remains in critical condition, while the Salisbury District Hospital said Thursday that 33-year-old Yulia Skripal’s condition was no longer critical and was now stable.
The Skripals were found slumped on a bench in an outdoor shopping complex in Salisbury. They had no visible injuries, according to police.
The update on Yulia’s condition comes a day after police said they believed the Skripals first came into contact with the nerve agent at Sergei Skripal’s home in Salisbury.
Police have identified the highest concentration of the nerve agent to date as being on the property’s front door, London’s Metropolitan Police said.