Russia Expels Dozens of Diplomats from 23 Countries

Continuing its diplomatic confrontation with Western countries over the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian spy in the UK, Moscow announced on Friday, March 30, that it would expel 59 diplomats from 23 different countries. According to Reuters, Russia stated that this action was in response to the expulsion of its diplomats from Western countries following the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with a nerve agent in Salisbury, UK. On Friday, the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned ambassadors or senior members of the embassies of most Western countries that had expelled Russian diplomats. Laurie Bristow, the British ambassador to Moscow, was also summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry on Friday. Previously, the UK expelled 23 Russian diplomats in response to the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter. The Russian Foreign Ministry said that Laurie Bristow was informed that she had one month to reduce the number of staff at British diplomatic missions in Russia to match the number of Russian diplomatic staff in the UK. However, the Russian Foreign Ministry did not specify how many British diplomatic staff should be reduced in the country. Following the UK's action, more than 20 Western countries also expelled Russian diplomats. The most serious response came from the United States, which expelled 60 Russian intelligence officers and closed the Russian consulate in Seattle. Reuters reports that the expulsion of Russian diplomats is the largest collective diplomatic action by Western countries against Russia since the end of the Cold War. Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found unconscious in a shopping center in Salisbury, southern UK, in mid-March. They were taken to the hospital and are still in intensive care. Sergei Skripal, 66, was previously an officer in the Russian military security service. He was arrested in December 2004 and sentenced to prison for passing confidential information to the UK and treason; he was granted asylum in the UK in 2010 during a spy swap with the US and has lived in that country for years.