Russia will respond harshly to the new sanctions of the USA
Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed on Sunday that members of diplomatic missions of the USA in Russia will be reduced in response to the bill on sanctions, which the U.S. Congress passed last week.
Russian state media quoted the words of Putin, which stated that 755 of the "thousand or so" employees "will have to stop their activities in Russian Federation". This applies to diplomats and technical workers, he said. The Russian President tried to reduce the number of American diplomats in Russia up to 455, which corresponds to the number of Russian diplomats in the U.S., said in a statement the Russian foreign Ministry on Friday. The statement was the final decision on redundancy on 1 September. The US has not determined how many diplomatic staff is in Russia.
The Russian foreign Ministry on Friday demanded that the United States has reduced its diplomatic staff in Russia and said they will take two diplomatic apartments USA, Moscow store and a country house outside the capital, in a sharp response to the new bill the US on sanctions. August 1, Russia will take over the management of the estate. Putin had hoped that relations with the United States will improve, but now they say that it looks like it will not happen soon, according to state media.