The US has expelled two Russian diplomats from the country, weeks after Moscow ordered two Americans to leave, the latest tit-for-tat expulsions as relations between the two countries continue to deteriorate.
The move came after Russia ousted the two US diplomats over contacts with a former consular worker accused of collecting sensitive information. The US has called these accusations baseless.
“The Department will not tolerate the Russian government’s pattern of harassment of our diplomats,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
The unidentified Russian diplomats were given seven days to leave the US. That was the same amount of time given to US diplomats Jeffrey Sillin and David Bernstein, who were ordered to leave Russia last month.
Sillin and Bernstein were accused of contacting a former employee of the U.S. consulate in Vladivostok, who later pleaded guilty to collecting confidential information.
Russia and the US have been involved in a series of mutual expulsions since long before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
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