(Reuters) -Russia told the United States on Wednesday it would throw out an unspecified number of American diplomats in response to a U.S. move to expel Russian staff from the permanent U.N. mission, Interfax news agency said.
The agency also cited the Russian foreign ministry as telling the United States that any hostile actions against Moscow would provoke a decisive response.
Last month Washington said it had expelled 12 Russian diplomats at the United Nations over national security concerns, describing them as “intelligence operatives”.
Interfax said the Russian ministry had presented a senior U.S. diplomat in Moscow with a list of people who had to leave “in response to Washington’s expulsion of diplomats from the permanent U.N. mission in New York”.
Interfax did not say how many people were affected or when they would have to leave.
“The American side was told very firmly that any hostile U.S. actions against Russia would provoke a decisive and comparable response,” the agency said.
The move comes as the United States and its allies weigh further sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
(Reporting by David LjunggrenEditing by Gareth Jones)
