Tit-for-tat expulsions as Russia closes US consulate

Russia will close down the US consulate in St Petersburg and expel dozens of foreign diplomats from America and across the world.

The move is a retaliation to the expulsion of more than 150 Russian diplomats across the globe, following the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

© Reuters Russia is to close down the US consulate in St Petersburg

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said US ambassador Jon Huntsman had been summoned and was informed of the "retaliatory measures".

Moscow will kick out 60 US diplomats, with Mr Lavrov promising "symmetrical measures" for other countries which are expelling Russian diplomats in a mass show of support for Britain.

Sergei Skirpal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were found unresponsive and taken to Salisbury District Hospital after being attacked with nerve agent novichok on 4 March.

© Rex Features Sergei Skripal and Yulia Skripal

Britain has blamed Moscow for the attempted murders - an allegation Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed as "nonsense".

On Thursday, it was announced that Ms Skripal was no longer in a critical condition and is "improving rapidly", but her father remains in a critical but stable condition.

Hitting out at the "so-called Skripal case", Mr Lavrov said Russia's measures were a reaction to "absolutely unacceptable actions that are taken against us under very harsh pressure from the United States and Britain".

He accused London of "forcing everyone to follow an anti-Russian course" and said Moscow had repeated its request for access to Ms Skripal "as she is a Russian citizen".

© Reuters Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a news conference after a meeting with U.N. special envoy on Syria Staffan de Mistura in Moscow, Russia

The foreign minister said in Moscow "we want to establish the truth" over the poisoning and accused Britain of "making mockery of international law."

Mr Lavrov added that Russia had asked for a meeting with the executive council of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons on Tuesday to ask questions to "establish the truth."

"We are counting on our Western partners not evading an honest conversation," Mr Lavrov said.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said he is "very concerned" that the world appeared to be approaching a situation "similar" to the Cold War as tensions rise between the United States and Russia.

Source - Sky News