Ten employees of US embassy to leave Russia by May 21, Statement

Shafaq News/ Russia handed over on Wednesday the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow a note about ten employees of the US Embassy to leave the Country, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"On April 21, the deputy chief of mission of the US in Moscow, Bart Gorman, was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry, he was handed a note declaring 10 employees of the US Embassy in Moscow personae non gratae. These persons were ordered to leave the territory of our country by the end of 21 May," the statement says.

"This measure is a mirror response to the US hostile actions against a number of employees of the Russian Embassy in Washington and the Russian Consulate General in New York, who were groundlessly declared persona non grata," the statement says.

According to the statement which is reported by the Russian News Agency (Tass), Moscow will be taking further steps in the immediate future in response to Washington’s anti-Russian sanctions.

"Further steps will follow in the immediate future as part of the set of retaliatory measures, which were announced in a statement of the Russian Foreign Ministry on April 16, in response to the latest wave of illegal anti-Russian sanctions of the United States," the Foreign Ministry said.

Yesterday, the U.S. ambassador to Moscow John Sullivan said he would travel to the United States this week for consultations.

"I believe it is important for me to speak directly with my new colleagues in the Biden administration in Washington about the current state of bilateral relations between the United States and Russia," Sullivan said in a statement on the website of the U.S. embassy.

But he said he would return to Moscow in the coming weeks "before any meeting between Presidents Biden and Putin."

Earlier, The United States imposed a broad array of sanctions on Russia, including curbs to its sovereign debt market, to “punish it for interfering in last year’s U.S. election, cyber hacking, bullying Ukraine and other alleged malign actions.”

The U.S. government blacklisted Russian companies, expelled Russian diplomats and barred U.S. banks from buying sovereign bonds from Russia's central bank, national wealth fund and Finance Ministry. The United States warned Russia that more penalties were possible but said it did not want to escalate.