Expulsion of 35 US diplomats proposed to Putin

By Hakan Ceyhan Aydogan

MOSCOW

In the latest shot in an escalating diplomatic war, Russia’s Foreign Ministry is proposing that President Vladimir Putin 35 U.S. diplomats, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Rossiya-24 television Friday.

The proposal came one day after the U.S. applied wide-ranging penalties on Russia, including deporting 35 suspected intelligence operatives, for its alleged role in hacking this year's elections to favor the campaign of President-elect Donald Trump.

The U.S. sanctions target nine entities and individuals, including Russia's main intelligence directorate, the GRU, and its Federal Security Service, the FSB.

President Barack Obama said Thursday the 35 officials being expelled are "intelligence operatives". The officials and their families were given 72 hours to leave the U.S.

Vladimir Djabarov, deputy chairman of the Russian Federation Council's International Affairs Committee, said Russia would retaliate against the expulsion of its diplomats.

"Reciprocity is an act diplomacy and international relations," said Lavrov.

Lavrov said the Foreign Ministry had proposed the expulsion of 31 diplomats from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, and four others from the U.S. Consulate in St. Petersburg.

He added that the ministry also proposed banning U.S. diplomats from using two buildings in Moscow.

After Washington announced its penalties Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov told reporters that the measures are a mark of Obama’s “unpredictable” and “aggressive” foreign policy.

Peskov said the U.S. government’s action would be met under the "principle of reciprocity" and that Putin will decide on the response.

"Announced on December 29 sanctions are aimed directly at undermining #Russia #US bilateral relations. They won't be left unanswered," Russia’s Embassy in Washington said on its official Twitter account.