The United States hit seven Russian oligarchs and 17 Russian government officials with sanctions on Friday for what it called “malign activity” around the world, as the Trump administration tried to show that President Donald Trump is taking tough action to stand up to Moscow.
Ex-spy Sergei Skripal is improving rapidly and is no longer in critical condition, a British health official said Friday, a month after he and his daughter were poisoned with a rare nerve agent that triggered a diplomatic crisis between Russia and the West.
Serious diplomacy has this Easter Season, given way to the farcical drama of European countries expelling diplomats of their Russian brothers with the later retaliating. This week, 25 countries including non-European allies like the United States, Australia and Canada, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) had knocked out 158 Russian diplomats with Russia absorbing the punches and throwing its own. There is the joke that American President, Donald Trump was watching the CBS 60 Minutes programme when he was asked how many Russian diplomats should be expelled, he looked at the screen, saw 60 Minutes and decided that 60 Russians should be expelled.
Russian diplomats recently expelled from the UK over the case of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and their families left the Russian embassy in London on Tuesday and are heading to the airport in more than 10 cars, a Sputnik correspondent reported.
Britain is expelling 23 Russian diplomats after the nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy — the single biggest such expulsion since the Cold War.
