Moscow considers various options of response to the situation around the Russian departmenet in the United States and does not exclude that will demand from Washington “to establish actual parity in the number of employees of diplomatic missions”. This was stated in an interview with RIA Novosti Director of the Department of North America of the MFA of Russia Georgy Borisenko.
According to the diplomat, Moscow is considering the opportunity “to reduce the number of employees of the US diplomatic mission in Russia to 300 or below.” In late July Russia ordered to reduce the U.S. diplomatic mission in Russia to 755 people, leaving 455 employees.
“If they behaved in a similar manner, so they agree that we can do the mirror with their diplomatic missions in Russia. As for specific measures, we will consider them, and if required, they will be applied”, — said Borisenko.
He added that the figure of 455 people, to which Moscow has invited Washington to lead the American staff in order to equate it with the Russian, also included employees of the Russian permanent mission to the UN in new York. However, they are not involved in bilateral Russian-American relations. “It was purely our good will. We actually gave the Americans a head start, went to meet them,” — said the diplomat.
In early September, at the request of the American authorities was closed by the Russian Consulate General in San Francisco and sales offices in Washington and new York. After that, the buildings were searched. Moscow has described the actions of an unfriendly step and promised to go to court.