MOSCOW: Russia on Friday asked 10 US diplomats to leave the country in retaliation for Washington's expulsion of the same number of Russian diplomats over alleged malign activity and suggested the US ambassador return home for consultations.
The measures, part of a broader retaliatory package, were approved by President Vladimir Putin, as a response to an array of US government sanctions imposed on Moscow a day earlier, including curbs to its sovereign debt market.
Though Moscow responded swiftly and with measures designed to hurt US interests and shrink its diplomatic footprint, it left the door open for dialogue and did not kill off the idea, proposed by President Joe Biden, of a Putin-Biden summit.
"Now is the time for the United States to demonstrate good sense and to turn its back on a confrontational course," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.
"Otherwise an array of painful decisions for the American side will be implemented."
It said it had options to hurt the United States economically and to shrink its diplomatic corps in Russia to just 300 people, but was holding fire for now.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Russia's response.
Russia-U.S. ties slumped to a new post-Cold War low last month after Biden said he thought Putin was a "killer" and Moscow recalled its ambassador to Washington for consultations. The envoy has still not returned almost a month later.
The Russian foreign ministry said John Sullivan, the US ambassador to Russia, should return home for consultations too.
Washington said its own sanctions were pay back for Russia interfering in last year's U.S. election, cyber hacking, bullying Ukraine and other alleged malign actions.
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