Russia accuses US of pressuring countries to expel Russian diplomats

Moscow, March 27: Russia on Tuesday accused the US of pressuring Western countries to carry out mass expulsion of its diplomats over an alleged nerve agent attack on a former spy living in the UK and said Moscow will respond "harshly" to the decision.

As NATO too announced the expulsion of seven Russian diplomats from Brussels, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the US of "colossal blackmail" and said there were "few independent countries" left in modern Europe, TASS news agency reported.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said "Moscow will respond harshly to the move by Washington and a number of Western countries" and that "the US had once again directed false accusations at Russia", and that it "threatened and attempted to turn everything upside down",

The US on Monday ordered the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats, joining governments across Europe

"When one or two diplomats are being expelled from this or that country, all the while whispering apologies in our ear, we know for sure that this is a result of colossal pressure, colossal blackmail, which unfortunately is Washington's main tool now on the international area," he said.