News of Anglo-American School of Moscow Closure False - Russian Foreign Ministry

News of the Anglo-American School of Moscow's closure in response to sanctions imposed by the United States are false, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said Friday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — CNN quoted a US official briefed on the matter as saying Thursday that Russian authorities ordered the school to close as part of relation for US sanctions introduced earlier in the day.

"It is a lie. Apparently, the White House went completely mad and started coming up with sanctions against their own children," Maria Zakharova wrote on her Facebook page.

The US punitive measures imposed on Thursday include declaring 35 Russian diplomats "persona non grata" and the closure of two Russian diplomatic compounds in Maryland and New York.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists late on Thursday that Russia was going to adequately respond to Washington’s new restrictive measures.

Peskov also said that the latest sanctions appear to be an attempt to enforce a certain line of action on the new US administration, instead of giving it free choice.

The Russian Foreign Ministry called the outgoing Obama administration's actions counterproductive and warned they would harm the mending of bilateral relations.

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