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WORLD NEWS Monday 31 July 2017
Putin says US will have to shed 755 from diplomatic staff

include both Americans believed to be about 400, against Washington, Putin
and Russians hired to work some of whom have fami- described the reduction in
in the diplomatic offices. lies accompanying them diplomatic staff as “pain-
The Russian leader did not on diplomatic passports. ful” and said he currently
explain how the figure of The vast majority of the opposes further measures.
755 positions was calcu- more than 1,000 employ- “We certainly have some-
lated. ees at the various US dip- thing to respond with and
The State Department did lomatic missions in Russia, restrict those areas of joint
not immediately offer a including the embassy in cooperation that will be
response to Putin’s state- Moscow and consulates in painful for the American
ments. St. Petersburg, Vladivostok side, but I don’t think we
It declined to give an exact and Yekaterinburg, are lo- need to do it,” he said,
number of American diplo- cal employees. adding that such steps
mats or other U.S. officials Asked about the potential could also harm Russian
in Russia, but the figure is for additional sanctions interests.q

Russian President Vladimir
Putin looks on attending
the military parade during
the Navy Day celebration
in St.Petersburg, Russia, on
Sunday, July 30, 2017.
(AP Photo/Alexander Zem-
lianichenko, Pool)

By NATALIYA VASILYEVA
Associated Press
MOSCOW (AP) — Russian
President Vladimir Putin
said Sunday the United
States would have to cut
its embassy and consulate
staff in Russia by 755 under
new sanctions from Mos-
cow.
Russian’s Foreign Ministry
on Friday ordered a re-
duction by Sept. 1 in the
number of U.S. diplomatic
personnel in Russia. It said
it is ordering the U.S. Em-
bassy to limit the number
of embassy and consular
employees in the country
to 455 in response to the
U.S. Senate’s approval of a
new package of sanctions.
“We had hoped that the
situation will somehow
change, but apparently
if it changes, it won’t be
soon,” Putin said in an in-
terview televised on Ros-
siya 1, explaining why Mos-
cow decided to retaliate.
“I thought it was the time
to show that we’re not go-
ing to leave it without an
answer.”Russia is open to
cooperating with the U.S.
on various issues, including
terrorism and cybercrime,
but instead it “only hears
unfounded accusations of
meddling in U.S. domestic
affairs,” he said.
Putin said more than 1,000
people are currently em-
ployed at the Moscow
embassy and three U.S.
consulates in Russia. They