US Embassy receives list of names
Kremlin expels US diplomats from the country
03/24/2022 01:03 am
At the beginning of March, the United States declared twelve Russian representatives at the United Nations in New York to be undesirable because of allegations of espionage. Moscow is now launching a counterattack: several American emissaries have to leave Russia.
Russia has declared several US diplomats in Moscow undesirable. A representative of the US embassy in Moscow had been given a list of diplomats who had to leave the country in response to the expulsion of 12 Russian representatives to the United Nations in New York a few weeks ago. The Foreign Ministry in Moscow did not provide any information on the number of expelled diplomats. The US side has also been told that any hostile action by the United States against Russia will receive an appropriate response, the ministry said.
A State Department spokesman in Washington confirmed receipt of the list. “This is the latest unhelpful and unproductive move by Russia in our bilateral relationship,” the spokesman said. Moscow should end the “unjustified expulsions,” he said. “Now more than ever, it is critical that our countries have the necessary diplomatic personnel on the ground to enable communication between our countries.”
At the beginning of March, the United States announced the expulsion of 12 Russian UN diplomats on charges of espionage. The “secret agents” based at the Russian UN mission in New York were involved in “espionage activities that are contrary to our national security,” the US mission to the UN said. They would have “abused” their “privileges” of staying in the USA.
The US mission had been prepared for “several months”, the US representative explained. The expulsions are in line with the treaty that sets out the rights and obligations of the US as the country where the United Nations is headquartered. Russia’s ambassador in Washington, Anatoly Antonov, condemned the expulsion as a “hostile act against our country”.