Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered 755 American diplomats to leave, in retaliation against latest sanctions by the US Congress.
The Russian strongman said he was responding to “unlawful” behavior by Washington, just days after Congress voted almost unanimously to impose fresh sanctions on Moscow.
“The American side has made a move which, it is important to note, hasn’t been provoked by anything, to worsen Russian-US relations. [It includes] unlawful restrictions, attempts to influence other states of the world, including our allies, who are interested in developing and keeping relations with Russia,” Putin told the Rossiya 1 TV channel.
“We’ve been waiting for quite a long time that maybe something would change for the better, we had hopes that the situation would change. But it looks like, it’s not going to change in the near future… I decided that it is time for us to show that we will not leave anything unanswered.”
The US sanctions bill also included measures against Iran and North Korea and was passed over Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and its alleged interference in the 2016 US election.
Source: Agencies
