Russia will expel 60 American diplomats and close U.S. Consulate in St. Petersburg

Oren Dorell | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption U.S.: Russia has 'no justification' for expulsions The United States says there's "no justification" for Russia's retaliatory moves to expel 60 U.S. diplomats and shutter the American Consulate in St. Petersburg. (March 29)

Russia will expel 60 U.S. diplomats and close the U.S. Consulate in St. Petersburg in a "tit-for-tat" in response to Western actions after an ex-spy poisoning, Kremlin's news agency Tass reported on Thursday.

The Kremlin also summoned U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman so Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov could brief him "on the tit-for-tat steps against the U.S.," Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

The expulsion was expected. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that Russia would respond in a reciprocal manner after a mass expulsion of 150 Russian diplomats by the U.S. and 26 other countries. President Trump and other leaders in Canada, Australia, NATO and Europe acted together in response to what they said was Russia's poisoning March 4 of a former Russian double agent and his daughter in Britain.

Sergey Skripal, the former Russian spy who was convicted in Russia of providing information to the United Kingdom, remains in critical condition. His daughter Yulia was no longer in critical condition and was said to be improving rapidly Thursday, according to Reuters.

Russian expulsions largest since the Cold War AP's Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee explains that Monday's actions against Russia mark the largest expulsion of Russians by the US and its allies since the end of the Cold War. (March 26)

The last time the U.S. expelled Russian diplomats was in December 2016, when then-president Barack Obama expelled 35 Russians he said had meddled in the presidential election that year. Russia retaliated by sending home 755 American diplomats.

Russia's response "is calibrated to try & convince the US not to take additional punitive measures," Brett Bruen, a staffer in Obama's National Security Council, said on Twitter. "It's significant enough to show strength at home, but really designed to ensure we dont continue to escalate the situation."

This response is calibrated to try & convince the US not to take additional punitive measures. It's significant enough to show strength at home, but really designed to ensure we dont continue to escalate the situation, even as #Russia continues to pursue the very same plan... https://t.co/pfpSGiGuKO — Brett Bruen (@BrettBruen) March 29, 2018

On Monday, the Russian Embassy in Washington posted a Twitter poll asking "What US Consulate General would close in @Russia, if it was up to you to decide"?

The consulate in St. Petersburg got 47%, far ahead of the ones in Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok.