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Russia to Expel Four US Diplomats As Retorsion
Russia on Friday declared four staff members from the US embassy in Moscow "persona non grata" and demanded they leave Russia in the next few days, as a retaliative measure against a Thursday similar US move against Russia.
A Russian Foreign Ministry statement said this was announced to US charge d'affiars John Ordway, who was summoned to the ministry earlier today.
The US diplomats will be expelled for "activities incompatible with their status," the statement said.
Ordway was told that Russia will also take "other measures to halt the unlawful activities of American official representatives in Russia."
He was presented with "a very firm protest against the unlawful activities of several official American representatives in Russia," the statement said.
The US State Department on Thursday formally announced expulsion of four Russian diplomats accused of direct involvement with a former FBI agent spying for Moscow, and said that additional 46 Russian embassy stuffers will also have to leave by July.
Moscow has strongly protested against Washington's decision and said that it will take an adequate action in response.
"The Russian counterintelligence service is well aware of the activities of U.S. intelligence officers working in Russia under diplomatic or other cover," Interfax cited a Russian special services source as saying Friday.
It is easy for Moscow to produce a list of Americans who might be expelled in response to the United States' expulsion of over 50 Russian diplomats, said the source, adding that these spies are from the FBI, National Security Agency, Defense Intelligence
Agency and CIA.
"They, not we, began this latest spy-mania scandal," the source said, "They couldn't possibly expect us not to respond."
While there are 190 personnel at the Russian embassy in Washington, U.S. diplomatic offices employ 1,100 people, so it is obvious whose intelligence service has the advantage for spying, the source said.
Only those U.S. diplomats whose intelligence activities direct evidence is available will be expelled, he added.
The expulsions will mark the most serious spy row between Russia and the U.S. since the end of the Cold War.
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