Russia says it will respond harshly to any measure against it by US

Russian authorities are breathing fire at the moment after Washington told Moscow to close its San Francisco consulate and two other facilities saying they’ll respond harshly to any US measures designed to hurt it.

The warning came as Russia said it was weighing a response to the US move that will force it to shut its San Francisco consulate, as well as its trade missions in Washington, DC and New York City by Saturday.

Speaking in Moscow on Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said; “Moscow will have a tough response to the things that come totally out of the blue to hurt us and are driven solely by the desire to spoil our relations with the United States.”

Read also: Putin decries pressure on N’Korea, says show of force by US, Japan & S’Korea could prove futile

The US ordered the closures in a retaliatory move after the Kremlin demanded Washington slash staff numbers at its Russian diplomatic missions to 455 personnel with a deadline that ran out on Friday.

“The United States has fully implemented the decision by the government of the Russian Federation to reduce the size of our mission in Russia,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert confirmed in a statement.

The spat between the two nuclear-armed powers is another blow to US President Donald Trump’s pledge to try to improve relations with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

 

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