
RT reported earlier this morning that Moscow will reduce the number of US diplomatic personnel in Russia to 455—the same number of Russian diplomatic staff stationed in the United States.
Okay, great … but what does that mean? How many Americans are going to be kicked out of Russia?
Accoding to Interfax: hundreds.
Hundreds, not dozens, of U.S. diplomatic and technical staff will have to leave Russia as part of [the] retaliation.
A report from Reuters seems to support this estimate:
An official at the U.S. embassy in Moscow, who declined to be named because they were not allowed to speak to the media, said there were around 1,100 U.S. diplomatic staff in Russia. That included Russian citizens and U.S. citizens.
Most staff, including around 300 U.S. citizens, work in the main embassy in Moscow with others based in outlying consulates.
And Trump hasn’t even signed the sanctions into law. This is just a warning.
Playtime is over.