Russian minister proposes expelling 35 Americans in tit-for-tat response

Russia’s foreign minister on Friday proposed a retaliatory reaction to new U.S. sanctions, reportedly recommending the expulsion of 35 American diplomats.

On Thursday, President Obama announced that 35 Russian intelligence operatives would be told to leave the U.S. in response to the Kremlin’s reported meddling in the U.S. presidential election.

The next day, Sergei Lavrov called the allegations of 2016 hacking “groundless” and “without proof.”

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“We cannot not respond to this,” he said. “This goes against the law of diplomatic relations.”

In addition to the expulsions, the White House announced economic sanctions against Russia’s two main intelligence organizations, the FSB and the GRU.

Bipartisan senators, including John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.), said the new sanctions do not go far enough and pledged to lead the push for stricter measures in 2017. 

President-elect Donald Trump, however, has repeatedly called for “our country to move on to bigger and better things” when asked about Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump said Thursday he will “meet with leaders of the intelligence community next week,” but he has expressed skepticism of the FBI’s and CIA’s assertion that Moscow was behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and other party groups before last month’s vote.

The Russian government accused Obama of trying to undercut Trump’s promise to seek better relations with Moscow. Lavrov called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to swiftly approve the tit-for-tat move.

“We can’t, of course, leave such steps without a response,” he said in televised comments. “Reciprocity is a law of diplomacy and international relations.”