A diplomatic crisis between the U.S. and Russia is now threatened after President Vladimir Putin ordered 755 U.S. diplomats to leave Russia. A total of 755 American diplomats will have to leave Russia as a result of Washington’s own policies, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Sergei Ryabkov, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister, said on ABC’s This Week that his country’s retaliation over U.S. actions against Russia was “overdue.”

On Sunday, Putin sat with Russian television host, Vladimir Solovyov, in an exclusive interview with Rossiya 1 TV.

The Russian leader said they remained hopeful that something would change for the better.

“We’ve been waiting for quite a long time that maybe something would change for the better, we had hopes that the situation would change. But it looks like, it’s not going to change in the near future… I decided that it is time for us to show that we will not leave anything unanswered.”

The Russian foreign ministry announced that Moscow told Washington to reduce the number of its diplomatic staff in Russia to 455 people. The events follow U.S. Congress’ approval of new sanctions against Russia, Iran, and North Korea.

By September of 2017, the number of United States diplomatic service staff in Russia was officially ordered to be reduced in order to equal the number of Russian diplomats in the United States.

The American diplomatic mission carries over 1,200 personnel and “greatly exceeds” the number of Russia’s embassy staff in the United States.

Once the bill becomes law, Trump will be unable to ease sanctions against Russia, according to the Washington Examiner, unless he gets congressional approval to do so.

The legislation cleared through Congress with overwhelming bipartisan support, coming in with a 98-2 vote in the Senate and 419-3 in the House.

The legislation is said to be a larger response to Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

In December, thirty-five Russian diplomats were expelled from the United States under sanctions President Barack Obama imposed over Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 election, according to CNN. The sanctions also included the closure of two Russian compounds, in Maryland and New York, used for intelligence purposes. </s> Tensions between Russia and the Western international community deepened on Monday after the United States, European countries and their allies expelled dozens of Russian diplomats in the wake of a nerve attack on a former Russian agent earlier this month.

Ireland was not among the 16 EU countries that announced the expulsion of Russian representatives on Monday, but a decision will be taken by Cabinet on Tuesday morning, amid indications that at least one Russian citizen will be expelled.

The White House announced sweeping measures, including the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats and the closing of the Russian consulate in Seattle, on Monday, the first in a co-ordinated wave of announcements across Europe yesterday. Canada and Ukraine also announced plans to expel Russian individuals.

In echoes of the Cold War, Moscow warned of retaliatory actions, describing the developments as a “provocative gesture”.

In a bellicose statement, the Russian foreign ministry warned: “We will react,” while the Russian ambassador to the US accused the country of “destroying whatever little is still left in Russia-US relations”, Russian news agencies reported.

Of the 60 diplomats expelled from the US, 48 are Washington-based while 12 work at the United Nations in New York. They have been given seven days to leave the country. The Russian consulate in Seattle will also be closed. Officials said they believe the consulate was a key site for Russian surveillance activities, due to its proximity to a US submarine site and Boeing facilities.

Briefing reporters on the surprise announcement, White House officials accused the diplomats of engaging in the “aggressive collection” of intelligence on American soil.

“With these steps, the United States and our allies and partners make clear to Russia that its actions have consequences,” the White House said in a statement.

Monday’s announcement by Washington represents the most significant move yet by the Trump administration to censure Russia, and follows US president Donald Trump’s reluctance since his inauguration to criticise the Russian government, who have been accused by US intelligence services of interfering in the US presidential election.

Announcing the decision, a senior administration official said the move had been “absolutely [Donald Trump’s ] decision”.

“It was a decision he was involved in from the beginning and that he personally made after several meetings last week with his team,” the official said.

Mr Trump spoke with Russian president Vladimir Putin last week to congratulate him on his election victory, in defiance of the advice of many of his advisers, given concerns about the credibility of the Russian election. Russian media reported that the two leaders discussed a possible summit during their phonecall.

Yesterday’s collective act of rebuke against Russia was taken in response to the poisoning of former intelligence official Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury in southern England on March 4th.

“Today’s extraordinary international response by our allies stands in history as the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers ever and will help defend our shared security,” British foreign secretary Boris Johnson tweeted. “Russia cannot break international rules with impunity.” </s> The Russian Foreign Ministry has proposed expelling 35 American diplomats from Russia. The plan comes as a proportional response to new U.S. sanctions against Russia for its alleged hacking of institutions related to the U.S. presidential election.

According Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's proposal, Russia should expel 31 employees of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and four employees of the General Consulate in St. Petersburg. The diplomats' names were not mentioned in the proposal.

Lavrov also proposed banning U.S. Embassy employees from using both a warehouse located on Dorozhnaya Ulitsa and a dacha in Serebryany Bor.

On Thursday, the Obama administration ejected 35 Russian intelligence operatives from the United States and imposed sanctions on Russia’s two leading intelligence services. The U.S. also sanctioned four intelligence officers who belong to the military unit Washington says ordered the hacking attacks on the Democratic National Committee and other political institutions.

Earlier today, CNN reported that Russia would close the Anglo-American School of Moscow in response to the sanctions. However, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova later denied that this was true. </s> The United States expelled 35 Russian diplomats and closed two Russian compounds in New York and Maryland in response to a campaign of harassment against American diplomats in Moscow, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday.

The move against the diplomats from the Russian embassy in Washington and consulate in San Francisco is part of a series of actions announced on Thursday to punish Russia for a campaign of intimidation of American diplomats in Moscow and interference in the U.S. election.

The Obama administration was also announcing on Thursday a series of retaliatory measures against Russia for hacking into U.S. political institutions and individuals and leaking information to help President-elect Donald Trump and other Republican candidates, two U.S. officials said.

Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, has called for better relations with Russia. It was not clear if he will be able to immediately overturn the measures announced on Thursday.

The Russian diplomats would have 72 hours to leave the United States, the official said. Access to the two compounds, which are used by Russian officials for intelligence gathering, will be denied to all Russian officials as of noon on Friday, the senior U.S. official added. </s> President Donald Trump is ordering the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats and the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle, Washington, in the wake of the UK nerve agent attack, the White House announced Monday.

The President is taking the action in response to the poisonings of a former Russian double agent and his daughter in England, the administration announced.

Forty-eight of the diplomats work at the Russian embassy and a dozen at the United Nations in New York. They and their families will have seven days to leave the country.

“The United States takes this action in conjunction with our NATO allies and partners around the world in response to Russia’s use of military grade chemical weapons on the soil of the United Kingdom, the latest in this ongoing pattern of destabilizing activities around the world,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said.

In December 2016, the US expelled 35 Russian diplomats in response to Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election. </s> President Vladimir Putin resisted a call Friday to expel U.S. diplomats in response to a new round of election-related sanctions against Russia.

The move goes against the advice of Putin's foreign minister and signaled the Russian leader's apparent willingness to wait until the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump to restore wounded U.S.-Russia relations.

In a potential tit-for-tat action, Sergey Lavrov earlier Friday called for the expulsion of 35 U.S. diplomats and the closure of two facilities in Moscow after Washington on Thursday sanctioned Russian intelligence officials, expelled 35 Russian diplomats suspected of being spies and shut down two Russian facilities in the United States over evidence Russia interfered in this year's presidential election.

"We will not create problems for U.S. diplomats," Putin said in a statement. "We will not expel anybody." Putin said the fresh U.S. measures contravened "the fundamental interests of both the Russian and American people."

In a further mark of apparent appeasement, the Russian president invited the children of U.S. diplomats in Russia to a New Year's Eve party in the Kremlin.

Lavrov called for the expulsion of 31 employees at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and four in the U.S. consulate in Saint Petersburg. He added that the foreign ministry submitted a proposal to Putin to bar U.S. diplomats from using two facilities in Moscow — a vacation house and a warehouse.

He said that claims by President Obama's administration that Russia was behind cyber-attacks that targeted the U.S. election were "groundless."

"The outgoing U.S. administration of Barack Obama accusing Russia of all mortal sins, trying to blame us for the failure of its foreign policy initiatives, among other things, has put forward additional accusations without any grounds whatsoever that the Russian state was behind attempts to meddle in the U.S. election campaign, which led to the defeat of the democratic candidate," he said in a speech. "We, of course, cannot leave insults of this kind unanswered."

But the lack of a response Friday does not mean Russia will not take any counter-measures. Dmitry Peskov, Putin's spokesman, promised late Thursday that Russia would "cause serious discomfort to the American side" as a result of the sanctions.

The last time the U.S. expelled Russian diplomats on this scale was in 2001, when 51 were ejected for spying.

The dispute is another example of an increasingly frosty diplomatic relationship between Moscow and Washington that has suffered major setbacks during Obama's tenure and recalled Cold War-era animosity over differences over Moscow's support for separatists in Ukraine and Syrian President Bashar Assad.

After Lavrov's comments, the Russian embassy in the United Kingdom tweeted an image of a hand, apparently located in the U.S., throwing a boomerang bearing the words "Anti-Russian Sanctions" toward Russia. The tweet added: "MFA: American people humiliated by its own President," referring to the ministry of foreign affairs.

President-elect Donald Trump has called the hacking claims "ridiculous" and said Americans should "get on with their lives." That view does not appear to be widely supported by the majority of Democratic and Republican politicians. </s> The government of the United States Thursday expelled 35 Russian diplomats from Washington and San Francisco, US Department of State said in an official statement. Meanwhile, lawmaker Vladimir Dzhabarov, who is Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council's (Parliamantary Upper House) warned that reciprocal steps will be made with regards to the U.S. embassy in Moscow and, quite possibly, the consulates will be cut down in size as well. In any case, it is believed that this decision will destroy diplomatic relations between the two countries, as one Kremlin source put it.

It was also announced on Thursday that two Russian compounds in Maryland and New York, used by Russian personnel for intelligence-related activities, will be closed and access to the compounds will be denied to all Russian diplomats as of Friday noon.

The 35 diplomats are said to be in fact intelligence operatives who have been declared persona non grata and were given 72 hours to leave the country. Washington accuses the Russian military's Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) of hacking information with the intent to interfere with the US election - along with help from the Federal Security Service (FSB).

US President Barack Obama said he implemented the sanctions in response to the Russian government's aggressive harassment of US officials and cyber operations aimed at last month's US election. All Americans should be alarmed by Russia's actions, Obama said in a statement and added that the actions were not the sum total of our response to Russia's aggressive activities.

We will continue to take a variety of actions at a time and place of our choosing, some of which will not be publicized, he said.

Obama's administration is expected in the coming days to provide a report to Congress regarding Russia's efforts to interfere in last month's vote, as well as other malicious cyber activity related to previous elections.

Three US intelligence agencies concluded earlier this month that Russia was behind hacks into the Democratic Party and leaked documents ahead of the US presidential election on November 8.

 The agencies also agreed that Russia sought to intervene to help President-elect Donald Trump and other Republican candidates into office. Both Russia and Trump have denied and dismissed the findings.

With Trump due to take office in the White House on January 20, Obama's move puts the president-elect in the position of having to decide whether to retract the measures once sworn in. </s> WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has imposed sanctions on Russian officials and intelligence services in retaliation for Russia's interference in the U.S. presidential election by hacking American political sites and email accounts.

The State Department also has kicked out 35 Russian diplomats from its embassy in Washington and consulate in San Francisco, giving them and their families 72 hours to leave the U.S. The diplomats were declared persona non grata for acting in a "manner inconsistent with their diplomatic status."

Obama said Russians will no longer have access to two Russian government-owned compounds in the United States, in Maryland and in New York.

Russian officials have denied the Obama administration's accusation that the Russian government was trying to influence the U.S. presidential election.

U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Russia's goal was to help Donald Trump win — an assessment Trump has dismissed as ridiculous. </s> WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has imposed sanctions on Russian officials and intelligence services in retaliation for Russia’s interference in the U.S. presidential election by hacking American political sites and email accounts.

The State Department also has kicked out 35 Russian diplomats from its embassy in Washington and consulate in San Francisco, giving them and their families 72 hours to leave the U.S. The diplomats were declared persona non grata for acting in a “manner inconsistent with their diplomatic status.”

Obama said Russians will no longer have access to two Russian government-owned compounds in the United States, in Maryland and in New York.

Russian officials have denied the Obama administration’s accusation that the Russian government was trying to influence the U.S. presidential election.

U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Russia’s goal was to help Donald Trump win — an assessment Trump has dismissed as ridiculous.
The United States expels 35 Russian diplomats over the alleged Russian interference during the U.S.'s 2016 presidential election.