Russia Expels 23 UK Diplomats in Retaliatory Move in Spy Row

Russia will expel 23 British diplomats in retaliation against the UK’s expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats, Russia’s foreign ministry said.
The tit-for-tat expulsion follows after the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in London on March 4.
UK’s Prime Minister Theresa May said on Saturday that Russia’s dismissal of the British representatives “doesn’t change the facts of the matter” of the poisoning.

“Russia’s response doesn’t change the facts of the matter – the attempted assassination of two people on British soil, for which there is no alternative conclusion other than that the Russian State was culpable,” May told her Conservative Party’s spring forum.
Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were found unconscious on a bench outside a shopping centre in Salisbury, after they were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent.
The British diplomats must leave Moscow within a week, Russia’s foreign ministry said on Saturday, after a meeting with Britain’s ambassador to Russia, Laurie Bristow.
Moscow also decided to close the British Council in Russia and to withdraw permission for Britain to open a general consulate in St Petersburg, the ministry said in a statement.