Russia expels 755 US diplomats

The western media is painting this as retaliation against the recent sanctions. It is not. Russia had still to respond to the totally illegal confiscation of Russian properties in the US on 31 December last year.

It is, in my mind an action that is LONG overdue.

Putin: 755 US diplomats to depart Russia, time to show we won’t leave anything unanswered

RT,

30 July, 2017

More than 750 American diplomats will have to leave Russia as a result of Washington's own policies, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said in an exclusive interview with the Rossiya 1 TV channel.

"The American side has made a move which, it is important to note, hasn't been provoked by anything, to worsen Russian-US relations. [It includes] unlawful restrictions, attempts to influence other states of the world, including our allies, who are interested in developing and keeping relations with Russia," Putin told channel host, Vladimir Solovyov, Sunday.

"We've been waiting for quite a long time that maybe something would change for the better, we had hopes that the situation would change. But it looks like, it's not going to change in the near future... I decided that it is time for us to show that we will not leave anything unanswered," the Russian president dded.

Earlier this week, following the US Congress' approval of new sanctions against Russia, Iran and North Korea, the Russian foreign ministry announced that Moscow told Washington to reduce the number of its diplomatic staff in Russia to 455 people.

The number of US diplomatic service staff in Russia was ordered to be reduced in order to equal the number of Russian diplomats in the US by September 1. As of now, it "greatly exceeds" the number of Russia's embassy staff in the US, the ministry said. The American diplomatic mission includes more than 1,200 personnel.

"From the perspective of a working diplomatic mission, [the measure] is fairly sensitive," Putin said.

The Russian leader went on to say that there is a number of "important spheres of cooperation" between Moscow and Washington, which he hoped would not suffer because of America's anti-Russian policies. Those mostly include the joint fight against terrorism, obligations in nuclear arms control, and space projects rather than economic relations, Putin said.

Moscow has much wider trade and economic relations with China, the EU and other countries than with the US, the president dded

.

Putin however underlined that Moscow and Washington had recently reached "concrete" results in de-escalating the crisis in war-torn Syria, which are in the interests of the entire Middle East region.

"We also work together on fighting illegal migration and organized crime in a broad sense. There are also issues of cybersecurity," Putin pointed out, having also referred to joint Russia-US scientific projects in space, such as plans to jointly explore Venus.

"The main thing is, that we have a multi-faceted cooperation in many fields. Of course, Moscow has a lot to say and there is a number of spheres of cooperation that we could potentially cut and it would be sensitive for the US side. But I think we shouldn't do it. It would harm development of international relations. I hope it won't get to that point. As of today, I'm against it."

RUSSIAN DEPUTY FM: retaliation against US “LONG OVERDUE” (VIDEO)

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said the sanctions bill was "completely weird and unacceptable".

theDuran,

29 July, 2017

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov has given an interview during which he expressed his sorrow and anger at the US for prolonging the problem of stolen Russian Embassy and.

In the interview which has been broadcast on ABC news, Ryabkov stated,

“So if the US side decides to move towards further deterioration, we will answer, we will respond in kind. We will mirror this, we will retaliate, but my call and my whole point is – don’t do this. It’s to the detriment of the interest of the US and I’m hopeful that even those who are the worst adversaries of Russia in your country, will understand this very simple logic.

Every child in the US knows what the words ‘no trespassing on private property’ means. Meanwhile, we saw the US law enforcers just taking completely unacceptable measure on private property that belongs to a foreign state. We can’t have more evidence of a very wrong direction in which political thinking in the US has taken in recent time”.

Barack Obama’s seizure of Russian Embassy property which is legally on the soil of the Russian Federation as defined by the Vienna Convention of international law, was not met with an immediate Russian response as Russia was keen on waiting for a seemingly more amicable President Trump to mend that which Obama destroyed.

Now however that the US Congress has passed a punitive sanctions bill that has been globally condemned including by America’s EU allies, Sergey Ryabkov described the situation as the straw that broke the camel’s back after over half a year of unrequited patience.

Now watch Sergey Ryabkov explain why Russia has had enough.