Russian Foreign Ministry announced the expulsion of 10 American diplomats

As reported on the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry, a note on the expulsion of 10 employees of the American embassy in Moscow on April 21 was handed over to Bart Gorman, US Deputy Ambassador to Russia, who was summoned to the Foreign Ministry.

“These persons have been ordered to leave the territory of our country by the end of the day on May 21 this year”, - Kommersant quotes a message from the Russian Foreign Ministry.

The department clarified that in the near future Russia will take further steps in the framework of "a set of responses to the latest" wave "of illegal US anti-Russian sanctions".

The decree on the introduction of a new portion of anti-Russian sanctions was signed by US President Joseph Biden on April 15. 32 enterprises and individuals from the Russian Federation fell under the sanctions. In addition, American companies were banned from buying primary federal loan bonds (FLB) of the Russian Federation, which immediately "dropped" the quotes of the Russian government debt.

In addition to these measures, 10 Russian diplomats were expelled from Washington. These US actions provoked a mirror-like response from the Kremlin. Already on April 16, Russia struck back by sending 10 American diplomats home and advising John Sullivan, the American after in Moscow, to go home "for consultations".

At the same time, a series of diplomatic scandals followed against diplomats from the Czech Republic and Bulgaria. This happened after the Czech authorities accused the Russian security forces of organizing a series of explosions at the arms depots of the Bulgarian businessman Gebrev in the town of Vrbetica in the Czech Republic, which killed two people. The Czechs suspected the alleged GRU agents Petrov and Boshirov (Mishkin and Chepiga), infamous for the poisoning of the Skripals in Salisbury, of the crimes, who entered the Czech Republic with fake passports issued in the names of Nikolay Popa and Ruslan Tabarov.