US Retaliates by Expelling Two Russian Diplomats The US has expelled two Russian diplomats in response to Moscow’s order for two Americans to leave the country. This tit-for-tat expulsion is the latest escalation in the deteriorating relations between the two countries. Russia expelled the two US diplomats on the grounds of their contacts with a former consular employee who was accused of collecting sensitive information. The US, however, has dismissed these allegations as baseless. “The Department will not tolerate the Russian government’s pattern of harassment of our diplomats,” said State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller. The two Russian diplomats have been given seven days to leave the US. This mirrors the timeframe given to US diplomats Jeffrey Sillin and David Bernstein, who were ordered to leave Russia last month. Sillin and Bernstein were accused of having contact with a former employee of the US consulate in Vladivostok, who had pleaded guilty to gathering confidential information. This reciprocal expulsion is part of a series of expulsions between Russia and the US that started even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Newsbyteindia staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)