WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Russia will expel U.S. and European diplomats and close the U.S. consulate general in St. Petersburg in response to measures taken against Russia over its alleged role in the poisoning of a former double agent in England.
The Russian measures follow the coordinated expulsion ordered this week of more than 130 Russian diplomats from the U.S. and European countries, after the U.K. government said Russia was responsible for the use of a military-grade nerve agent in an attempt to murder Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia. Russia has denied it was behind the attack.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said it had summoned the U.S. ambassador, Jon Huntsman, and told him that 58 U.S. envoys in Moscow and two in St. Petersburg would have to leave Russia by April 5.
The U.S., Canada and more than a dozen European countries expelled scores of Russian diplomats and intelligence officers on Monday. The ejections of 60 Russians that the U.S. identified as intelligence officers-48 from the Russian embassy and 12 from the permanent mission to the United Nations-was the largest number of expulsions since the end of the Cold War.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX