Trump expels Russian agents as gap between words and actions widens Even as Trump continues a friendly approach toward Russian President Vladimir Putin, the U.S. takes a tougher line toward Moscow.

The Trump administration is expelling 60 Russian diplomatic officials it says are spies to punish a nerve agent attack in the United Kingdom that has been widely attributed to Moscow.

The dramatic move continues a two-faced U.S. policy toward Russia — further escalating official diplomatic tensions even as President Donald Trump continues a friendly approach toward Russian President Vladimir Putin.


In a phone call with Putin last week, Trump personally congratulated the Russian leader on his reelection but did not mention the attempted murder of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter with a banned nerve agent in the U.K. earlier this month.

Trump was involved “from the beginning” and “personally made” the call to take the steps announced Monday, which also include the shuttering of Russia's consulate in Seattle, according to a senior administration official who briefed reporters. The official said Trump has not spoken to Putin since their phone call last Tuesday.

Yet as of early Monday afternoon, Trump had made no public comment nor tweeted about the latest action. Trump has been notably reluctant to criticize Putin directly, even amid federal probes into Russian election meddling and revelations about suspicious contacts between Trump campaign officials and Kremlin-connected Russians.

Trump drew wide criticism after he declined to ask Putin about the chemical attack, which the British government firmly blames on Russia. But the White House said Trump wants to find common ground with the Russian leader in the name of global security, including what Trump has called a new “arms race” with Russia, which recently unveiled several new nuclear weapons.

POLITICO Playbook newsletter Sign up today to receive the #1-rated newsletter in politics Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

"The President still remains open to working with the Russians on areas of mutual concern," White House spokesman Raj Shah told reporters Monday, including counter terrorism. Shah said that Trump "will continue diplomacy with Russia and with Putin," though he added that "our relationship with Russia is frankly up to the Russian government and to Vladimir Putin."

While Trump said last week that he hopes to meet with Putin soon, Shah said he had "no announcements on any kind of a meeting."

In a video posted on Twitter, Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Anatoly Antonov called the move a "grave mistake," saying that it runs "against the telephone conversation between our two presidents" last week, which he called "constructive."

"It is up to the United States to decide what kind of relations they want to have with the Russian Federation," added Antonov, who was called to the State Department on Monday morning to be informed of the expulsions.

In an angry statement Monday, Russia's foreign ministry denied any knowledge of the Skripal poisoning and vowed retaliation. The statement said the expulsions violate "the norms of civilized interstate dialogue and the principles of international law," warning: "[W]e will react to it."

At the same time, Monday's announcement drew praise even from some generally tough critics of Trump's outreach to Putin.

"When it comes to Russia we must continue to take strong action and today’s announcement is a good start. I greatly appreciate President Trump for taking this decisive action," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said in a statement.

"The administration has done the right thing in supporting our British allies," tweeted Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is leading an investigation into Russian election meddling and alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.

The Trump official said all 60 of the expelled officials are operatives posing as diplomats, 48 at the Russian Embassy and 12 at the Russian mission to the United Nations. They and their families have seven days to leave the U.S.

Trump administration said it was acting in coordination with more than a dozen allies in Europe and beyond. Germany and France also announced Monday that they are expelling four Russian diplomats each, according to the German Press Agency and Reuters, while The Associated Press reported that Poland and Lithuania will also expel Russian diplomats. All told, European Council President Donald Tusk announced on Twitter that 14 European Union nations would expel Russian diplomats in response to the attempted murder.

“The Russian government has shown malicious contempt for the sovereignty and security of countries worldwide," an administration official said. "It has repeatedly sought to subvert and discredit Western institutions. These efforts are ongoing. Today, we stand in solidarity with America’s closest ally, the United Kingdom. To the Russian government, we say when you attack our friends, you will face serious consequences.”

While British Prime Minister Theresa May moved quickly to denounce Russia as the culprit behind the attempted murder of Skripal—a former Russian military official who became a spy for Britain—White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was initially hesitant to lay blame for the attack on the Kremlin.

The White House soon adopted the British government's position, although Trump’s refusal to raise the attack during his phone call with Putin further fueled criticism that he has taken a soft stance toward Russia — especially relative to his get-tough approach elsewhere around the globe.

While the expulsion of the Russian diplomats and closure of the Seattle consulate were ordered in part as specific retaliation for the Kremlin’s alleged involvement in Skripal’s attempted murder, an official added that the steps were also part of “a holistic look at the Russian government’s collection capabilities here in the U.S.”

The expulsions, another official said, remove “a large number of the unacceptably numerous Russian intelligence officers who abide in the United States.”

The Russian intelligence officers being expelled, one administration official on the conference call said, "are considered to be aggressive collection personnel here in the U.S."

The FBI has long been eager for the expulsion of what it believes are many dozens of Russians who, using diplomatic cover, have been gathering intelligence within the United States.

It is the second time within the past 12 months that the Trump administration has moved to close Russian diplomatic facilities, having ordered last August the shutdown of Russia’s San Francisco consulate, as well as a chancery annex in Washington and a consular annex in New York. Monday’s move leaves the Kremlin with just two consulates in the U.S., one in Houston and one in New York, in addition to its Washington embassy.

In December 2016, President Barack Obama expelled 35 Russian diplomats and imposed other sanctions on Russia as punishment for the Kremlin's election meddling. Trump's then-incoming national security adviser, Michael Flynn, reportedly urged Russia's ambassador to the U.S. against retaliation — implying that Trump would reverse the sanctions after his inauguration.

“In taking this step, we assessed the Russian consulate in Seattle to be part of this broader problem of an unacceptably number of Russian intelligence operatives in the United States,” an administration official on Monday morning’s call said. “We think it sends a very clear signal, particularly since on the West Coast, the Russians will now have a degraded capability with regards to spying on our citizens.”

Daniel Lippman contributed to this report.