Russia declared Friday that it has banned a number of U.S. government officials, including the U.S. attorney general, from entering Russia; in addition Russia will ask 10 U.S. officials to leave the country in retaliation for new U.S. sanctions against Russia. Russia said it views the White House proposal for a Biden-Putin summit in a positive light despite the new round of sanctions and counter-sanctions between the U.S. and Russia.
Russia announced Friday that it will ban the U.S. attorney general, internal security and domestic policy adviser, FBI director and intelligence director from entering Russia, AFP news agency said.
The banned U.S. officials also include Michael Carvajal, head of the U.S. Prison Service, former Trump adviser Bolton and CIA Director John Woolsey.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said the officials were “involved in the implementation of the anti-Russian policy of the United States.
Separately, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday that the U.S. had previously sent Russia a list of 10 diplomatic officials who were asked to leave the U.S. In response, Russia took reciprocal measures and asked 10 U.S. diplomatic officials in Russia to leave the country.
Lavrov also said that if the U.S. continues to make unfriendly moves against Russian diplomatic missions, Russia may ask the U.S. to match the number of U.S. diplomats in Russia with the number of Russian diplomats in the U.S.
The United States recently imposed a new round of sanctions on Russia and announced the expulsion of 10 Russian diplomats.
Russian diplomatic missions in the United States have a total of about 450 diplomatic and administrative staff, 150 of whom are staff members of the Russian Permanent Mission to the United Nations whose work does not involve Russian-American relations, so Russia has a total of 300 people working in bilateral relations in the United States; while the number of U.S. diplomatic staff working in Russia is about 450.
Separately, Russia said Friday that it views the White House proposal for a Biden-Putin summit in a positive light, despite a new round of sanctions and counter-sanctions between the U.S. and Russia, AFP reported.
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