31 July, 2017
Russian's Foreign Ministry on Friday ordered a reduction by September 1 in the number of US diplomatic personnel in Russia.
The bill, cleared by the Senate in a 98-2 vote, will limit Trump's ability to lift or waive sanctions against Russian Federation, and imposes new sanctions on Iran and North Korea.
Putin said more than 1,000 people are now employed at the Moscow embassy and three USA consulates in Russian Federation.
On Friday, an official at the US Embassy, who did not wish to be identified, said the embassy employed about 1,100 diplomatic and support staff in Russia, including Russian and US citizens.
Moscow's retaliation, announced by the Foreign Ministry on Friday, had echoes of the Cold War.
Relations were already languishing at a post-Cold War low because of the allegations Russian cyber interference in the election was meant to boost Trump's chances, something Moscow flatly denies.
The White House says President Donald Trump will sign legislation implementing tough new financial sanctions against Russian Federation.
"The authors and sponsors of this bill are seriously heading towards destroying any prospects for normalizing relations with Russia", Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said this week.
Former presidential candidate John McCain said sarcastically he was "sure that Vladimir Putin could be of enormous assistance in that effort, since he's doing the hacking".
Russian state media quoted Putin saying 755 out of "a thousand or so" employees will "have to stop their activities in the Russian Federation". She did not say whether Trump would sign or veto the measure when it reaches his desk. "That doesn't make any sense", said Edward Fishman, a former State Department official during the Obama administration who worked on USA sanctions policy.
"In the event of new unilateral steps by the USA authorities to reduce the number of our diplomats in the U.S., a tit-for-tat response will follow", the ministry's statement said. It therefore seemed to some that it was this congressional move, which would require the president to secure lawmakers' approval before lifting sanctions on Moscow to be lifted and would also penalize firms that enrich the Russian energy industry, that served as the catalyst for Russia's retaliation.
"We have waited long enough, hoping that the situation would perhaps change for the better", he said.
The bill, which gives Congress new powers to block Mr Trump from easing sanctions against Moscow, passed the Senate 98-2 having passed the House earlier in the week.
The State Department declined to comment on the exact number of embassy and consular staff in Russian Federation.
"Trump read early drafts of the bill and negotiated regarding critical elements of it", White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement.
"For the time being, I am against" any additional riposte, Putin said. Thomas Massie, of Kentucky, Justin Amash, of MI and John Duncan Jr., of Tennessee, voted against the measure in the House. Reports of Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election have put a damper on hopes for better ties that the Kremlin had pinned on Trump's presidency.
In December, thirty-five Russian diplomats were expelled from the United States under sanctions President Barack Obama imposed over Russia's alleged meddling in the 2016 election, according to CNN.
He repeated that the USA sanctions were a step to worsening relations between the two countries.
