Putin says Russia to expel 755 U.S. diplomatic staff
 

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said Russia will expel 755 U.S. diplomatic staff and could consider imposing additional measures against the United States as a response to new U.S. sanctions, although not for now.

Moscow ordered the United States on Friday to cut hundreds of diplomatic staff and said it would seize two U.S. diplomatic properties after the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate approved new sanctions on Russia.

Putin said in an interview with Vesti TV released on Sunday that 755 U.S. diplomatic and technical staff would have to leave Russia by Sept. 1.

"Because more than 1,000 workers - diplomats and support staff - were working and are still working in Russia, 755 must stop their activity in the Russian Federation," he said.

New U.S. sanctions were in part a response to conclusions by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and to further punish Russia for its annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Moscow said on Friday that the United States had until Sept. 1 to reduce its diplomatic staff in Russia to 455 people, matching the number of Russian diplomats left in the United States after Washington expelled 35 Russians in December.

On Friday an official at the U.S. Embassy, who did not wish to be identified, said the Embassy employed around 1,100 diplomatic and support staff in Russia, including Russian and U.S. citizens.

Putin said that Russia could take more measures against the United States but not at the moment.

"I am against it as of today," Putin said in the interview with Vesti TV.

He repeated that the U.S. sanctions were a step to worsening relations between the two countries.

"We were waiting for quite a long time that maybe something would change for the better, were holding out hope that the situation would change somehow. But it appears that even if it changes someday it will not change soon," Putin said.

However, he said Moscow and Washington were achieving results on cooperation even "in this quite difficult situation". The creation of the Southern de-escalation zone in Syria showed a concrete result of the joint work between the two countries, Putin said.

article...

Pooty expelling American spies like a boss...

Putin just saved the costs of paying salaries and other associated costs the USA pays employing 755 diplomatic personnel in Russia.

Way to go! Make that man an honorary Republican.

I thought Trump was going to fix this? Seems like all he is doing is making things worse.

short about Russia&USA relationship

Why do I hear that whistling sound a bomb makes as it falls through the air?

Ray
hardlinks.org

Trump said he was a great negotiator.

Trump said he'd get things done.

Trump said Putin and him had a great relationship.

3 months in Putin gassed babies in Syria and we bombed an airstrip with firecrackers in retaliation. 6 months in and Putin's expelling 755 American diplomats from Russia.

Trump said we'd be "winning"!

this correct.

? :helpme :2 cents: :Oh crap

Pootys game is simply too strong...the USA should just give up...

Typical Putin stooge blame others for what you do :2 cents:

White House calls Russian denials on Syrian gas attack a 'coverup'

The White House on Tuesday accused Russia of a "coverup" of Syria's chemical attack on its own citizens, but stopped short of saying that the Kremlin knew in advance of last Tuesday's poison-gas attack that killed dozens of Syrian villagers.

Russia has consistently denied that the forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad dropped a bomb containing sarin, a banned nerve agent. President Trump responded on Thursday by approving a missile strike on a Syrian air base used to launch the chemical attack.

A declassified intelligence assessment released by the White House asserts that Syria and Russia "have sought to confuse the world community about who is responsible for using chemical weapons against the Syrian people in this and earlier attacks."

"The coverup is the disinformation," said a White House official who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the report. "The Russian narrative is false."

Russian military advisors were at the Shayrat air base when a Syrian warplane carrying the chemical weapon took off early on April 4, the White House official said, raising questions about whether the Russians knew in advance about the attack.

U.S. intelligence officials do not agree on whether the Kremlin knew about the gas attack beforehand, the official said.

"There is not a consensus on our side" about Russian foreknowledge, according to the official.

But the presence of Russian personnel at Shayrat prompted U.S. intelligence analysts to consider the possibility that Moscow may have known about hidden stores of the nerve agent sarin and knew that the toxic substance was being prepared for use in an attack.

Russia's repeated denials that Syrian forces launched the attack have driven a deeper wedge between the Trump administration and Russian officials as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is visiting Moscow for his first official visit.

That trip that was initially billed as following through on Trump's longstanding campaign promise to try to build a bridge between Washington and Moscow after years of chilly relations.

On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters in Moscow that accusations leveled against Syria's government were a "provocation" and that the gas attack should be investigated by the United Nations.

The White House wants Russia, Syria's main patron, to "stop the disinformation campaign" and work to prevent Syrian forces from launching additional chemical attacks, a second White House official said, adding that the Kremlin has launched "a very clear campaign to obscure the nature of the attacks."

Fighters of Islamic State and other terrorist or rebel groups in Syria do not possess sarin, U.S. intelligence officials have asserted.

U.S intelligence officials have assessed that opposition forces were close to taking a strategic airfield near the west-central Syrian city of Hama and had come within striking range of neighborhoods on the outskirts of the city, gains that could have been a factor in the Syrian decision to launch the gas attack on Khan Sheikhoun, 22 miles to the north.

"There was a calculus that the regime and perhaps their Russian advisors" made when using chemical weapons, a White House official said, noting that Assad's forces were "spread quite thin."

Nothing new with this lie, it is named Casus belli

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2016...ebookJumbo.jpg
http://dailysignal.com/wp-content/up...3-1250x650.jpg

Iraq and lybia
Made in USA
http://axisoflogic.com/artman/upload...nato_bombs.jpg
https://www.sott.net/image/s9/191154...s_children.jpg

^^^^ Russian stooge deflecting from Russia gassing Syrian children

Hey Blade, remember, Chump managing to wake up each day and tie his shoe laces is winning to him. And i must say with a huge gut like his it is a major achievement. :1orglaugh

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:thumbsup

How is anything they do supposed to hold some kind of power of the US? What are they going to do? More hacking? But I thought they weren't guilty of that.

They're an impotent country who is at the mercy of the rest of the civilized world. They're no threat to anyone except the tiny countries around them and are scared to death of being choked off financially. Fuck Russia.

we are headed towards the 3rd world war :2 cents::2 cents: there may be nukes :helpme:helpme you can still live if you prep :2 cents::2 cents:

I trust the honest honest US gov soooooo much with that story...it's right up there with Saddam's WMD LOL

^^^^ Another crocodile tears.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/image/838...x2-940x627.jpg

Okay...well if there was an actual man (or woman with balls) in the White House Putin would have no power over the US. That picture you posted is our weak link.

And now the Us will expel the same number of Russians.

I wouldn't compare Putin with a kitten. I would compare him with a skunk. Everything he touches stinks like shit after him :2 cents:

yes just look at US election results :1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

The US had do it before, it is Putin's symmetric response.
He can't stop winning like Trump
http://s013.radikal.ru/i325/1707/98/395cf47ce721.jpg

If grandmother will have dick it will be grandfather (c) Putin

Don't use big English words when you don't know what they mean.

sym·met·ric
səˈmetrik/
adjective
adjective: symmetric

made up of exactly similar parts facing each other or around an axis; showing symmetry.
"the structure is completely symmetric"

How the fuck are economic sanctions and diplomatic deportations similar?

The irony is that Russia has no symmetric response to make. Putin say: We won't send anymore oligarch laundered money to Trump anymore? ROFLMAO

I write correctly. It responded on this.

The 35 Russian diplomats being expelled are ?intelligence operatives?, Obama said. The state department has declared them ?persona non grata? and they will be given 72 hours to leave the country.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...-election-hack

Funny pic :1orglaugh