ST. PETERSBURG, Mar 17: Russia’s government is expelling 23 British diplomats and threatened further measures in retaliation in a growing diplomatic dispute over a nerve agent attack on a former spy in Britain.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it is also ordering the closure of the British Council in Russia and ending an agreement to reopen the British consulate in St Petersburg.
Russia orders out 60 U.S. diplomats over spy poisoning affair
It ordered the diplomats to leave within a week.
The statement said the government could take further measures if Britain takes any more “unfriendly” moves toward Russia.
British Prime Minister Theresa May this week expelled 23 Russian diplomats and severed high-level contacts over the poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
They remain in critical condition in hospital.
