Britain is told a total of more than 50 diplomats must leave over the nerve agent poisoning row
British ambassador to Russia, Laurie Bristow, leaves the Russian Foreign Ministry headquarters in Moscow. Pic/AFP
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Russia said yesterday that Britain had to reduce its diplomatic staff by more than 50 more people as a crisis in ties between Moscow and the West escalated over the nerve agent attack on a former spy.
The new measures came after 23 British diplomats left Russia earlier this month and are seen as Moscow's punishment after Britain's allies expelled Russian diplomats over the March 4 poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in an English city. "Russia suggested parity. The British side has more than 50 more people," foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
On Friday, Moscow summoned British envoy Laurie Bristow, giving London a month to cut the number of diplomatic staff in Russia to the same number Russia has in UK. He was summoned along with the heads of diplomatic missions from 23 other countries, in the biggest wave of tit-for-tat expulsions in recent memory.
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