Spy poisoning: Russia expels 60 US diplomats

MOSCOW, March 29 

Russia has ordered 60 US diplomats to leave by April 5, the foreign ministry said on Thursday, in a retaliatory move against Washington which expelled a similar number of Russian diplomats over the poisoning of a Russian spy in England.

The foreign ministry said it had declared persona non grata 58 diplomats in Moscow and two general consulate officials in Yekaterinburg in the row over the poisoning of former Russian double-agent Sergei Skripal on March 4.

Moments before the ministry announcement, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia would respond in kind to the mass expulsion of diplomats by Western governments which include, apart from the United States and Britain, most member states of NATO and the European Union.

"The measures would be reciprocal ... They include expulsion of the equivalent number of diplomats and they include our decision to withdraw our agreement to allow the United States' general consulate to operate in St. Petersburg," Lavrov said. He said the US ambassador had been informed of "retaliatory measures".

Washington earlier ordered the expulsion of 60 diplomats and shut down the Russian consulate general in Seattle.

The attack on 66-year-old Skripal and his daughter, which Britain has blamed on Russian President Vladimir Putin and says was caused by a Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok left on the door of their home in England, has driven relations between Russia and the West to a new post-Cold War low.

Russia has denied involvement in the attack on the Skripals and says it suspects the British secret services are trying to frame Russia to stoke anti-Russian hysteria.

Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence who betrayed Russian agents to Britain and then was exchanged in a spy swap deal, is still in a critical condition.

Skripals first poisoned at home: UK police 

• Detectives with London’s Metropolitan Police investigating the attempted murders of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia have said that they believe the pair first came into contact with a nerve agent at the front door of his Salisbury home
• Specialists found the ‘highest concentration’ of the nerve agent on the front door of Skripal’s home. The pair were poisoned on March 4 after being exposed to what British police believe was a military-grade nerve agent.

— Agencies