Ten Expelled US Diplomats Must Leave Russia Before 22 May, Russian Foreign Ministry Says

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia handed over to Bart Gorman, the Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in Moscow, a note declaring 10 embassy's employees personae non gratae, they must leave Russia by the end of the day on 21 May, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, Gorman was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry.

"On April 21, the deputy chief of mission of the US in Moscow, Gorman, was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry, he was handed a note declaring 10 employees of the US Embassy in Moscow personae non gratae. These persons were ordered to leave the territory of our country by the end of 21 May," the statement says.

The Russian Foreign Ministry stressed that this measure is a mirror response to "the hostile actions of the US side against a number of employees of the Russian Embassy in Washington and the Russian Consulate General in New York, who were unfoundedly declared personae non gratae."

"In the near future, further steps will follow, announced in the statement of the Russian Foreign Ministry on April 16, in the framework of the set of responses to the latest 'wave' of illegal anti-Russian sanctions by the United States," the ministry added.