755 in response to 35

Putin announced a sharp reduction in US diplomatic mission in Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin in the evening of July 30 announced that the number of employees of the American diplomatic mission in Russia will be reduced by 755 people as a response to toughening anti -Russian sanctions. It is not only about the expulsion of American diplomats, but also about the dismissal of various Russian experts working at the American embassy and consulates. This is the largest act of this kind in the history of the diplomatic relations of Russia and the USA - except for the closure of the American diplomatic mission after the October Revolution of 1917.

For the first time, the Russian Foreign Ministry warned of a possible reduction in the number of American diplomats working in the Russian Federation on July 14. The official representative of the department, Maria Zakharova, said that under the guise of diplomatic workers in Russia there are "too many American spies." According to Reuters, we are talking about the expulsion of American diplomats due to the fact that the United States refused to return Russia the right to use two embassy dachas closed in December 2016.

The cottages were closed by order of Barack Obama as a response to the actions of hackers who interfered in the American elections - it is allegedly from the sanction of the Kremlin (in Russia they reject the accusations of intervention in the elections). The Foreign Ministry suggested sending 35 American diplomats in response to Vladimir Putin, but he refused , saying that Russia would build further relations not with Obama, who introduced sanctions, but with the administration of Donald Trump already elected at that time.

The exact number of employees of the American diplomatic mission who cannot work in Russia, Vladimir Putin called. In an interview with TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov on July 30, he stated that the American side "took an unexplored step to deteriorate Russian-American relations." According to Putin, such a measure should be “quite sensitive” for the work of the US diplomatic department.

“We had been waiting for a long time that maybe something would change for the better, had such hope that the situation would somehow change,” the president explained. “But, apparently, if it changes, it is not soon.” At the same time, Putin added that Moscow is not going to introduce any additional restrictions on Washington. “We can consider other answers,” he said, “but I hope that it will not reach. I am against today. "

The fact that the number of American diplomats will be brought to 455 was announced on July 28 - after the US Congress adopted a bill to tighten sanctions against the Russian Federation. The number 455 was chosen based on the number of Russian diplomats working in the United States - after expulsion, the number of employees in the embassies of both countries should be equal. Then it was announced that Russia from August 1 "suspend the use of the US Embassy in Russia of all warehouse premises on the road street in Moscow and a cottage in Silver Bor."

The Foreign Ministry announced these measures before the bill signed Donald Trump (at the time of writing the document was not signed yet) - that is, the expulsion of the Americans became the response to the sanctions imposed in December 2016, and not to tighten the sanctions approved by Congress in July.

In the United States, the decision to send American diplomats was called an act of escalation. In fact, we are talking about a reduction in 755 people in response to 35 Russians from the United States. The number of American diplomatic mission in Russia will decrease by 62%. According to The Washington Post, reduction will be affected by employees of the American embassy in Moscow, as well as consulates in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok. The newspaper also notes that most of the 1200 employees of the mission are not American diplomats, but various specialists hired in Russia: builders, translators, drivers, and so on. The exact number of Americans who have to leave Russia has not yet been called.

The White House has not yet announced possible measures in response to the decision of Russia. Former US Ambassador to the Russian Federation, Michael McFol, suggested that as a result of a sharp reduction in the number of employees, the waiting time for American visas for Russians will greatly increase.

Konstantin Benyumov