Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Riabkov confirmed Tuesday that he had proposed to the U.S. authorities to agree on a maximum number of representatives of their respective diplomatic legations.
«We propose to stop and, for example, agree to set a certain ‘ceiling’ for personnel, within which we and the Americans could determine for ourselves how many people are needed in which area,» Riabkov said.
However, this proposal has so far received no response from the American side, as the representative of the Russian diplomacy acknowledged in statements to the media, as reported by the Interfax agency.
Riyabkov stressed that, on the basis of the sanctions imposed by Washington, Moscow will have to limit its diplomatic presence in the near future. «We are following the instructions of the (U.S.) Administration, so a certain group of our employees will be forced to leave.»
The deputy minister also recalled the «unjustified and inexplicable» decision of the United States to limit to three years the maximum period of stay of Russian diplomatic representatives on business trips to the US territory.
«They (the United States) impose their own rules of the game in this area, we always respond according to the principle of ‘an eye for an eye’, not necessarily symmetrically,» said Riabkov, who assured that if Washington complains about its small diplomatic presence in Moscow, it is its own fault.
