Russia expels UK envoys

Tempo Online
1 Min Read
Thomas Leary, the U.S. Consul General in St.Petersburg, centre, loads a sack onto a truck at the U.S. consulate as a Russian police officer guards the entrance, Saturday, March 31, 2018. Russia announced the expulsion of more than 150 diplomats, including 60 Americans, on Thursday and ordered the closing of the U.S. consulate in St. Petersburg by Saturday evening in retaliation for the wave of Western expulsions of Russian diplomats over the poisoning of an ex-spy and his daughter in Britain. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)

MOSCOW (AP) – The crisis between Russia and the West over the poisoning of a former double agent in Britain heightened Friday as Russia ordered new cuts to the number of British envoys in the country.

Russia also summoned 23 foreign ambassadors to inform them that some of their diplomats would be expelled, a day after ordering 60 U.S. diplomats to leave and demanding that Washington’s consulate in St. Petersburg close on short notice.

The massive expulsion of diplomats on both sides has reached a scale unseen even at the height of the Cold War.

Two dozen countries, along with NATO, ordered out more than 150 Russian diplomats this week in a show of solidarity with Britain over the nerve-agent poisoning of Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Britain that London blamed on Russia.

Moscow has vehemently denied involvement in the March 4 nerve agent attack in the English city of Salisbury and announced the expulsion of the same number of diplomats from each nation.

Share This Article
1 Comment