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Top Russian official threatens further retaliation over 'weird' US sanctions Putin: US have to cut diplomatic staff in Russia by 755
(about 3 hours later)
A top Russian diplomat has called new US sanctions “weird and unacceptable” and warned of retaliation by Moscow. President Vladimir Putin said the United States would have to cut its diplomatic staff in Russia by 755 people and that Russia could consider imposing additional measures against the United States as a response to new US sanctions approved by Congress.
Speaking on ABC’s This Week on Sunday, Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said a bill passed by Congress on Thursday that awaits Donald Trump’s signature was “the last straw”. Moscow ordered the United States on Friday to cut hundreds of diplomatic staff and said it would seize two US diplomatic properties after the US House of Representatives and the Senate approved new sanctions on Russia. The White House said on Friday that US president Donald Trump would sign the sanctions bill.
“If the US side decides to move further towards … deterioration, we will answer,” he said. “We will respond in kind. We will ... retaliate.” Putin said in an interview with Vesti TV released on Sunday that the United States would have to cut its diplomatic and technical staff by 755 people by 1 September.
On Friday, Moscow ordered the US to cut hundreds of diplomatic staff and said it would seize two diplomatic properties as a response to the new sanctions that were approved nearly unanimously by the House of Representatives and the Senate, safeguarding the measures against a presidential veto. “Because more than 1,000 workers – diplomats and support staff – were working and are still working in Russia, 755 must stop their activity in the Russian Federation,” he said.
The Trump administration said the president intended to sign the sanctions into law. The new US sanctions were partly a response to conclusions by US intelligence agencies that Russia meddled in the 2016 US presidential election, and to punish Russia further for its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Moscow has denied interfering in the US election.
On Sunday, President Vladimir Putin said on Russian television that 755 US diplomats would be expelled by 1 September. Russia could consider additional measures, he said, though he added: “I am against it as of today.” Moscow said on Friday that the United States had until 1 September to reduce its diplomatic staff in Russia to 455 people, matching the number of Russian diplomats left in the United States after Washington expelled 35 Russians in December.
On ABC, Ryabkov said: “After the Senate … voted so overwhelmingly on a completely weird and unacceptable piece of legislation, it was the last [straw].” On Friday, an official at the US embassy, who did not wish to be identified, said the embassy employed about 1,100 diplomatic and support staff in Russia, including Russian and US citizens.
He confirmed that the seizing of the properties was in response to the bill, but declined to say what other measures Russia would be willing to take if the US continued to apply pressure. The State Department declined to comment on the exact number of embassy and consular staff in Russia.
“We have a very rich toolbox at our disposal,” he said. “It would be ridiculous on my part to start speculating on what may or may not happen. We are not gamblers. We are people who consider things very seriously and very responsibly. As of 2013, the US mission in Russia, including the Moscow embassy and consulates in St Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok, employed 1,279 staff, according to a State Department inspector general’s report that year. That included 934 “locally employed” staff and 301 US “direct-hire” staff, from 35 US government agencies, the report said.
“But I can assure you that different options are on the table and consideration is being given to all sorts of things.“ That breakdown suggested the actual number of Americans forced to leave Russia would be far less than 755.
The US-Russia relationship has become increasingly strained in the wake of US intelligence agencies’ conclusion that the Kremlin interfered in the 2016 election to discredit Hillary Clinton and help Trump. “We don’t have 755 American diplomats in Russia,” said Michael McFaul, a former US ambassador to Russia, in a post on Twitter on Sunday.
Russia has denied meddling while Trump, who has made no secret of his desire for better relations with Vladimir Putin, has openly doubted his agencies’ conclusions. The cuts would likely affect how quickly the United States is able to process Russian applications for US visas, McFaul said.
Both houses of Congress and the special counsel Robert Mueller, a former director of the FBI, are investigating Russian meddling in the election and whether Trump aides colluded with Russia – an allegation Trump and his associates have staunchly denied. “If these cuts are real, Russians should expect to wait weeks if not months to get visas to come to US,” he said.
Putin said Russia could take more measures against the United States, but not at the moment. “I am against it as of today,” Putin said in the interview with Vesti TV.
He repeated that the US sanctions were a step to worsening relations between the two countries.
“We were waiting for quite a long time that maybe something would change for the better, were holding out hope that the situation would change somehow. But it appears that even if it changes someday it will not change soon,” Putin said.
He said Moscow and Washington were achieving results on cooperation, however, even “in this quite difficult situation.” The creation of the southern de-escalation zone in Syria showed a concrete result of the joint work between the two countries, Putin said.