In a tit-for-tat, Russia to expel 60 US diplomats, close US consulate in Saint Petersburg

March 29, 2018:

Expulsions started over the poisoning of ex-double agent Sergei Skripal.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Moscow that Russia would expel 60 US diplomats and close its consulate in Saint Petersburg in a tit-for-tat expulsion over the poisoning of ex-double agent Sergei Skripal.

He said the US ambassador had been officially informed of “retaliatory measures.”

US was told of the expulsion of the equivalent number of diplomats and decision to withdraw permission for the functioning of the US consulate general in Saint Petersburg.

Washington had earlier ordered the expulsion of 60 diplomats and shut down the Russian consulate general in Seattle.

Russia adopted tit-for-tat responses to the other countries that have expelled diplomats in a mass show of support for Britain which has blamed Moscow for the poisoning of Skripal and his daughter Yulia with a nerve agent in the city of Salisbury.

Statement said that Russia was reacting to “absolutely unacceptable actions that are taken against us under very harsh pressure from the United States and Britain under the pretext of the so-called Skripal case.”

He also accused London of “forcing everyone to follow an anti-Russian course.”

He said Britain had informed Moscow of the state of health of Yulia Skripal on Thursday and that Russia had asked again for access to her as a citizen.

The briefing in Moscow that “we want to establish the truth” over the poisoning and accused Britain of “making mockery of international law.”

Russia had asked for a meeting with the executive council of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons on Tuesday to ask questions to “establish the truth.”

“We are counting on our Western partners not evading an honest conversation,” Lavrov said.