Russia orders some U.S. staff to fly home

The step comes after Russia’s Ambassador to the United States said last week that 27 Russian diplomats and their families were being expelled from the United States

In an escalating diplomatic row between U.S.A. and Russia, some American diplomats were ordered to fly back. File

Russia said on Wednesday it was ordering U.S. Embassy staff who have been in Moscow for more than three years to fly home by January 31, a retaliatory move for what Moscow said was a U.S. decision to limit the terms of Russian diplomats.

The step, the latest in an escalating diplomatic row, comes after Russia’s Ambassador to the United States said last week that 27 Russian diplomats and their families were being expelled from the United States and would leave on January 30.

“We ... intend to respond in the corresponding way. U.S. embassy employees who have been in Moscow for more than three years must leave Russia by Jan. 31,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told a briefing.

The RIA news agency cited her as saying that new U.S. rules meant Russian diplomats who had been forced to leave the United States were also banned from working as diplomats in the United States for three years.