MOSCOW, Apr 17 (NNN-TASS) – Russia asked 10 U.S. diplomats to leave the country, in retaliation for Washington’s expulsion of the same number of Russian diplomats, over alleged malign activity and suggested the U.S. ambassador return home for consultations.
The measures, part of a broader retaliatory package, were approved by President Vladimir Putin, as a response to an array of U.S. government sanctions, imposed on Moscow a day earlier, including curbs to its sovereign debt market.
Though Moscow responded swiftly and with measures designed to hurt U.S. interests and shrink its diplomatic footprint, it left the door open for dialogue and did not kill off the idea, proposed by President Joe Biden, of a Putin-Biden summit.
Russian foreign ministry made a statement saying that, the time for the United States to demonstrate good sense and to turn its back on a confrontational course has come.
“Otherwise an array of painful decisions for the American side will be implemented,” the statement concluded.– NNN-TASS
