Russia Asks US Diplomat Who Has Been In Moscow For More Than Three Years To Leave On January 31

Juru bicara Kementerian Luar Negeri Rusia Maria Zakharova. (Wikimedia Commons / DIP MFA RF / photographer Nikita Kochuk)

JAKARTA - Russian authorities announced on Wednesday that they had ordered United States Embassy staff who have been in the country for more than three years to return home on January 31, 2022, in retaliation for Washington's decision to limit Moscow's diplomatic community.

The move comes as the diplomatic row between the two countries escalates, with Russia's ambassador to the United States last week saying 27 Russian diplomats and their families were "expelled" from the United States and would leave on January 30.

Washington said the diplomats were not "expelled", but had been in the country longer than the new three-year limit.

"We intend to respond in an appropriate manner. US Embassy employees who have been in Moscow for more than three years must leave Russia by January 31," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a briefing.

Citing Zakharova, RIA news agency said the new US rules meant Russian diplomats who had been forced to leave the United States were also barred from working as diplomats in the United States for three years.

"Before July 1 next year, unless Washington sets aside the three-year rule and compromises, more (US) workers (in Russia) will leave in numbers commensurate with the number of Russians announced by the State Department," she said.

Washington told Russia more than a year ago its diplomats would only be allowed to stay for three years, but could be replaced by other diplomats, according to a State Department spokesman.

"I want to be clear, this is not an expulsion," the spokesperson stressed, adding that the rule change was designed to have Russia rotate its diplomats with the same frequency as the US Embassy in Moscow.

Further reductions in the staff of the US Embassy in Moscow would put pressure on an operation Washington has described as a "guard presence" amid expulsions and other restrictions.

To note, the embassy was the last operational US mission in the country after consulates in Vladivostok and Yekaterinburg closed, with staff numbers further reduced to 120 from around 1.200 in early 2017 according to Washington.

Separately, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said it was not too late for Washington to stop Moscow from following through on new expulsions, if it scrapped its own plans to expel Russian diplomats.

Relations between Washington and Moscow, at post-Cold War lows for years, are under pressure due to the buildup of Russian troops near Ukraine.