The Russian government has ordered staffers at the US Embassy in Moscow who have worked there for more than three years to leave by the end of January — the latest tit-for-tat action in an ongoing diplomatic rift between Washington and Moscow.
Russia’s foreign ministry said the move was retaliation for the US expelling more than 50 Russian diplomats by the end of June 2022, according to the Wall Street Journal.
“I would like to emphasize that the choice is not ours,” said spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. “Our American partners have forced us to play that way. We have long and persistently tried to reason with them and still direct them to some kind of constructive solution to the issue, but they made their choice.”
Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Anotov rejected the State Department explanation that the Russian diplomats and their families have to leave America because their visas are expiring, arguing Washington’s refusal to extend their stay amounts to expulsion.
He called on the US to “return to normal practice of diplomatic missions’ work.”
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Ryabkov also accused Washington of destroying “diplomatic missions” by its actions.
“They just go head-on, continuing attempts to exert pressure,” Ryabkov said. “That language of ultimatums that the Americans also use in other spheres of our relations is unacceptable for us. We will respond in kind.”
The diplomatic spat has been ongoing over Russia’s interference in US elections and the illegal annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014.
Since then, Washington and Moscow have occasionally expelled each other’s diplomats or taken other actions to restrict their rival’s diplomatic functions.
The relationship of the former Cold War foes has eroded further since Russia massed thousands of troops and military equipment near Ukraine’s eastern border that many Western nations and the Kiev government fear is a prelude to an invasion.
With Post wires
