Russia suggested that Washington “reset” a diplomatic conflict started by the US President Barack Obama. About this RIA Novosti told the Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Lavrov noted that a couple of weeks before Obama, “broken irritation”, arrested Russian diplomatic property and kicked Russian diplomats. At the same time, according to Lavrov, Moscow did not respond to the “leaving excesses” of the Obama administration, since it was asked to be a new administration of Donald Trump. However, with the coming to power of the Republicans, the situation did not return to the normal course, so Russia had to take retaliatory steps – and “Chain Reaction” began
The minister stressed that if the improvement of relations with Washington depended only from Moscow, the countries would have returned to normal relations.
Russian-American relations worsened in March after a sharp statement by US President Joe Bayden to Putin. In addition, on April 15, Biden signed a decree on the introduction of new sanctions against Russia. Restrictions affected more than 30 individuals and legal entities. Among the grounds for their introduction, allegedly hostile activity of Russia in the cybersfer, interference in the US elections or other foreign countries. As part of the US sanctions package, 10 Russian diplomats from Washington are sent.
In response, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia published a list of sanctions against the United States. Moscow will refuse 10 American diplomats, take measures to end the hiring of citizens of Russia and third countries to the Embassy or the US Consulate Protection and to ban American diplomats of the trip beyond the locations of their basing.