The US protested the Russian Federation and expressed its strong disappointment with Moscow’s response to sanctions. These measures affected the US diplomatic capacity and the number of the embassy mission of the states in Russia. This was stated by the head of the State Department’s press service, Heather Nauert.
She noted that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had already held talks on this issue with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
“We expressed our serious disappointment and protested. Secretary Tillerson conducted a conversation with Foreign Minister Lavrov, and Ambassador John Tefft met with Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, “Nauert said.
In addition, a representative of the State Department, who wished not to disclose his name, said that the relations between the two countries have become even worse.
“The Secretary of State makes it clear that steady degradation does not contribute to the restoration of relations between our two countries,” the diplomat said.
He added that now the Russian Federation and the US are working to eliminate some of the “irritants in the relationship” and will improve cooperation.
On Friday, July 28, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the suspension of the use by the US Embassy of storage facilities in Moscow and the dacha in Serebryany Bor. Also, the American side is invited to reduce the number of its diplomats in the Russian Federation to 455 people by September 1. Such steps became the answer to the law passed earlier by the US Senate on the introduction of new sanctions against Russia. Such actions were Moscow’s response to the Senate-approved law on the strengthening of sanctions against Russia, Iran and the DPRK.