Responsibility for shutdown of U.S. missions to Russia to rest with U.S. senators - Russian Foreign Ministry

MOSCOW. Oct 5 (Interfax) - The members U.S. Congress proposing an expulsion of 300 Russian diplomats from the United States are apparently seeking the shutdown of U.S. diplomatic missions to Russia; if so, responsibility for this will rest with them, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

"We won't even recall that there aren't that many Russian diplomats in Washington. Or, having no relevant knowledge in the area of international relations, the congressmen have also counted Russian diplomatic staff working at the delegation to the United Nations?" the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a commentary.

"The important thing is, people proposing such steps are apparently seeking the shutdown of U.S. missions to Russia. They have to realize that the responsibility will rest with them," it said.

It emerged earlier that a group of U.S. senators representing both Democrats and Republicans sent a letter to U.S. President Joe Biden asking the U.S. administration to make Russia permit an increase in the numbers of diplomats working in the U.S. embassy in Moscow or, otherwise, they propose expelling 300 Russian diplomats from the U.S.

"This disproportionality in diplomatic representation is unacceptable," the senators wrote in their letter to Biden. The authors have published the letter on the website of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez (Democratic Party), his deputy Jim Risch (Republican Party), Marco Rubio (Rep) and Mark Warner (Dem) have signed the letter.

"Accordingly, Russia must issue enough visas to approach parity between the number of American diplomats serving in Russia and the number of Russian diplomats serving in the United States. If such action is not taken, we urge you to begin expelling Russian diplomats, to bring the U.S. diplomatic presence to parity. We believe such a step would be reasonable and reciprocal," the letter said.

The U.S. senators are asking the U.S. administration to expel 300 Russian diplomats "If the Russian Government does not cooperate."

The problem is that Russian citizens are prohibited from working at the U.S. embassy in Moscow, the senators said. "Russia has long counted locally hired Russian staff at U.S. Embassy Moscow as "American diplomats," they said. Such people were unable to continue work for the U.S. due to the prohibition. "U.S. acceptance of this characterization, across multiple administrations, and its incorporation into the calculation of relative diplomatic presences has resulted in there being more than 400 Russian diplomats spread throughout the United States, while the complementary U.S. diplomatic presence in Russia now numbers only about 100 Americans," the U.S. senators said.