President Vladimir Putin said the United States would have to cut its diplomatic staff in Russia by 755 people and that he could consider additional punitive measures against the United States against US Congress backed sanctions over Russia’s meddling in US elections. Moscow ordered the United States on Friday to cut hundreds of diplomatic staff and said it would seize two U.S. diplomatic properties after the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate overwhelmingly approved new sanctions on Russia.
The White House said on Friday that U.S. President Donald Trump would sign the sanctions bill. But a US state department official denounced the move as a "regrettable and uncalled for act," adding that Washington was now weighing a potential response. Putin said in an interview with Rossia-24 television released on Sunday that the United States would have to cut its diplomatic and technical staff by 755 people by Sept. 1.
"Because more than 1,000 workers - diplomats and support staff - were working and are still working in Russia, 755 must stop their activity in the Russian Federation," he said.
The new U.S. sanctions were partly a response to conclusions by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and to punish Russia further for its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Russia's response suggested it had set aside initial hopes of better ties with Washington under Trump, something the Republican president, before he was elected, had said he wanted to achieve.
Moscow said on Friday that the United States had until Sept. 1 to reduce its diplomatic staff in Russia to 455 people, matching the number of Russian diplomats left in the United States after Washington expelled 35 Russians in December. On Friday, the Russian foreign ministry demanded Washington cut its diplomatic presence in Russia by September 1 to 455 people - the same number Moscow has in the US.
Recall that in December, 2016, then US president Barack Obama ordered out 35 Russian diplomats and closed down two embassy summer houses that Washington said were being used by Moscow for espionage. At the time, the Kremlin said it would put any retaliation on hold until after Mr Trump took office.
High on the list of US grievances is the allegation that Russian operatives hacked Democratic Party computers at the peak of the troubled 2016 election campaign.
