Russia to expel 60 US diplomats, close US consulate in Saint Petersburg

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that Moscow would expel 60 US diplomats and close its consulate in Saint Petersburg in a tit-for-tat expulsion over the nerve agent attack on ex-double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury.

Lavrov said that the US ambassador had been informed of “retaliatory measures”, saying that “they include the expulsion of the equivalent number of diplomats and our decision to withdraw permission for the functioning of the US consulate general in Saint Petersburg”. Washington earlier ordered the expulsion of 60 diplomats and shut down the Russian consulate general in Seattle.

The same approach will be applied to other nations that expelled Russian diplomats this week, Lavrov added.

More than 25 countries have announced plans to expel a total of more than 130 Russian diplomats in solidarity with the UK over what has been described as the first chemical weapons attack on European soil since the second world war.