Ololade Adeyanju/
President Vladimir Putin has announced the ejection of 775 US diplomats in retaliation for a new US sanctions bill.
The Russian leader announced the move, on Sunday, effectively cutting the US diplomatic mission of roughly 1,200 in Russia by more than half.
The order from Moscow, reported by AFP, comes in response to a sanctions bill that passed the US Congress, on Thursday, which US President Donald Trump has said he will sign into law.
The Kremlin had on Friday seized two diplomatic properties and ordered the US to cut its mission to 445, the same size as Russia’s in the US, but the new order from Putin is the first revelation of a headcount of expulsions.
Earlier on Sunday, a top Russian diplomat lambasted the United States Congress for voting to sanction Russia, and warned of further retaliation by Moscow.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told ABC’s ‘This Week’ that the US sanctions bill was “weird and unacceptable”.
“If the US side decides to move further towards further deterioration, we will answer. We will respond in kind. We will mirror this. We will retaliate,” Ryabkov said.
The diplomat added that his “whole point is don’t do this. It’s to the detriment of the interests of the U.S.”.