Moscow: Russia banned top officials from US President Joe Biden s administration from entering the country and announced a wave of tit-for-tat sanctions and expulsions of diplomats, as tensions soar between the rivals.
The Russian action comes a day after Washington announced sanctions against Moscow and the expulsion of 10 Russian diplomats, in retaliation for what it says was interference by the Kremlin in US elections, a massive cyber attack and other hostile activity.
Moscow in a forceful response said top US officials including Attorney General Merrick Garland, Biden s chief domestic policy advisor Susan Rice, and FBI chief Christopher Wray would be banned from entering Russia.
Lists of officials banned from entry are usually kept secret, but Russia s foreign ministry said it was revealing the names due to the “unprecedented nature” of the current tensions with Washington.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters that Russia was responding to US sanctions in “a tit-for-tat manner” by asking 10 US diplomats in Russia to leave the country while also expelling five Polish diplomats in response to a similar move by Warsaw.
Lavrov also said that Putin s top foreign policy aide, Yury Ushakov, had recommended that US envoy John Sullivan leave for Washington to conduct “serious consultations”.
Sullivan said he had only seen a message on the Russian foreign ministry s website and was consulting with Washington.
“We have not received any official diplomatic correspondence providing details of the Russian government actions against the diplomatic mission of the United States of America in Russia,” Sullivan said in a statement.
The State Department later called Russia s retaliation “escalatory and regrettable”.
“It is not in our interest to get into an escalatory cycle, but we reserve the right to respond to any Russian retaliation against the United States,” a spokesperson said in Washington. APP
