'Washington must stop': Russia vows to 'retaliate' against its diplomats expulsion by US

Russia on Monday warned that it will retaliate to the United States’ expulsion of Russian diplomats, also deriding Washington for the closure of the Russian consulate in San Francisco. Asserting that the recent strings of diplomat expulsion has drastically shrunk the US diplomatic mission’s count in Russia, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told journalists on Monday that it is prepared to respond to America's plan to expel at least 27 Russian diplomats and their families in the coming weeks, Russia’s state-controlled agency Sputnik reported. 

"We will definitely respond. We have already warned the US side that in order to prevent a further decline of personnel numbers here we cannot help but to respond. They must stop,” Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov iterated. 

Earlier last week the Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov told a presser that said that officials on both sides held consultations in Vienna, wherein they discussed a range of issues including operation of diplomatic missions, visa issues and the longstanding issue of confiscated diplomatic property of Russia in the US and rampant expulsion of its diplomats. "I know that they have been rather challenging, some [understanding] has been achieved but things are tenacious,” Ivanov answered a reporter’s question, according to TASS. 

Consultation planned with Washington in December 

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov further informed that Russia has another such consultation scheduled for December and “does not want to delay meeting with the US”. He then added that Moscow looks forward to bringing key issues related to visas and diplomats. At least 27 more Russian diplomats and their families were expelled by the US, who will be leaving Washington by Jan. 30.

Russia claimed that previously the US kicked out 100 of its diplomats with families, and in October alone as many as 200 diplomats were asked to leave while still employed as staff of the Russian mission to the United Nations. The US stated that the diplomats were expelled due to their visa expiration. The Kremlin accused the US State Department of unilaterally establishing a three-year limit on the assignment period for Russian personnel in the United States, adding that “as far as we know, is not applied to any other country.”