US President Donald Trump will sign legislation that imposes sanctions on Russia, the White House said on Friday, after Moscow ordered the United States to cut hundreds of diplomatic staff and said it would seize two US diplomatic properties in retaliation for the bill.
The US Senate had voted almost unanimously on Thursday to slap new sanctions on Russia, forcing Trump to choose between a tough position on Moscow and effectively dashing his stated hopes for warmer ties with the country or to veto the bill amid investigations in possible collusion between his campaign and Russia.
By signing the bill into law, Trump can not ease the sanctions against Russia unless he seeks congressional approval.
Moscow’s retaliation, announced by the Foreign Ministry on Friday, had echoes of the Cold War. If confirmed that Russia’s move would affect hundreds of staff at the US embassy, it would far outweigh the Obama administration’s expulsion of 35 Russians in December.
Relations were already languishing at a post-Cold War low because of the allegations that Russian cyber interference in the election was intended to boost Trump’s chances, something Moscow flatly denies. Trump has denied any collusion between his campaign and Russian officials.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had warned on Thursday that Russia would have to retaliate against what he called boorish US behaviour. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters on Friday that the Senate vote was the last straw.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson by telephone that Russia was ready to normalise relations with the United States and to cooperate on major global issues.
Russian Foreign Ministry said the United States had until September 1 to reduce its diplomatic staff in Russia to 455 people, the number of Russian diplomats left in the United States after Washington expelled 35 Russians in December.‘Extreme aggression’It was not immediately clear how many US diplomats and other workers would be forced to leave either the country or their posts, but the Interfax news agency cited an informed source as saying “hundreds” of people would be affected.
A diplomatic source said that it would be for the United States to decide which posts to cut, whether occupied by US or Russian nationals.
An official at the US Embassy, who declined to be named because they were not allowed to speak to the media, said the Embassy employed around 1,100 diplomatic and support staff in Russia, including Russian and US citizens.
Russian state television channel Rossiya 24 said over 700 staff would be affected but that was not confirmed by the foreign ministry or the US embassy.
The Russian Foreign Ministry’s statement said the passage of the bill confirmed “the extreme aggression of the United States in international affairs”.
Most US diplomatic staff, including around 300 US citizens, work in the main embassy in Moscow, with others based in consulates in St Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said it was also seizing a Moscow dacha compound used by US diplomats for recreation, from August 1, as well as a US diplomatic warehouse in Moscow.
Thursday, June 04, 2026
