This was to be expected since the exlusion of the Russian ones….
Russia will close the American consulate in St. Petersburg and kick out 60 U.S. diplomats in response to Monday’s coordinated expulsion of Russian diplomats from the United States and a number of other countries, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday.
The move continues an ongoing escalation of tit-for-tat between Moscow and the West that began in early March with the alleged poisoning of a former Russian double agent on British soil with a Soviet-designed nerve agent.
U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman was summoned to the Foreign Ministry Thursday night where Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov informed him of Russia’s response.
According to a Foreign Ministry statement, 58 American diplomats from the Moscow embassy and two from the consulate in Yekaterinburg have been declared persona non grata. The United States expelled 60 Russians on Monday….