DIPLOMATIC ROW: Russia replies US in kind

The brewing diplomatic row over the poisoning of ex-Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia is threatening to boil over after Russia expelled 60 US diplomats in retaliation to Washington’s recent expulsion of 60 Russian officials.

Those expelled served at the US embassy in Moscow and two at the US consulate in Yekaterinburg, a statement by the Russian foreign ministry revealed.

Reports say the expulsion followed the revoking of a permit for the US consulate in St Petersburg – meaning it must shut down – and issued a protest note to the US ambassador to Moscow, Jon Huntsman, regarding what it called “outrageous and unwarranted” diplomatic action against Russia.

Read also: UK Police reveals how Russian spy was poisoned by nerve-agent at his door

The move by Russia is coming a day after British counter-terrorism police revealed that Skripal and his daughter Yulia were both poisoned with a nerve toxin that had been left on the front door of their home in England.

The incident has sparked a festering diplomatic row between the West and Russia with US expelling over 60 Russian diplomats days after Poland, Lithuania and Latvia recalled their envoys from Moscow over the poisoning of the former spy.

 

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