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July 31st, 2017 
Awake Goy 
nsnbc : Russian President Vladimir Putin, on Sunday, said Moscow will reduce diplomatic staff of the United States in Russia by 755 people in order to equal the number of Russian diplomatic personnel in the United States.
Speaking during an interview with the State-owned Rossiya TV channel on Sunday, Putin said “The personnel of the U.S. diplomatic missions in Russia will be cut by 755 people and will now equal the number of the Russian diplomatic personnel in the United States, 455 people on each side.”
At the same time, Putin denounced Washington’s “latest unlawful” move to tighten sanctions against Russia. Putin said it’s time for Moscow to show that “we will not leave anything unanswered.” Putin added:
“We’ve been waiting for quite a long time that maybe something would change for the better, we had hopes that the situation would change. But it looks like it’s not going to change in the near future.”
On Thursday, the U.S. Senate overwhelmingly approved a bill imposing tougher sanctions on Russia, two days after the bill was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill will be sent to the White House for President Donald Trump to sign into law or veto.
The Senate backed the bill, which also imposes sanctions on Iran and North Korea, by a margin of 98-2 with strong support from Trump’s fellow Republicans as well as Democrats.
It is the first major foreign policy legislation approved by Congress under Trump, who has struggled to advance his domestic agenda despite Republicans controlling the Senate and House of Representatives. The strong bipartisan support for the bill was a sharp contrast to the bitter partisan rancor during debate over how to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system.
Republicans and Democrats have pushed for more sanctions partly as a response to the election allegations. Trump denies any collusion between his campaign and Moscow. Republican Senator John McCain, a leading congressional voice calling for a firm line against Russia, said before the vote: “The United States of America needs to send a strong message to Vladimir Putin and any other aggressor that we will not tolerate attacks on our democracy.”
Putin said Russia has prepared a large set of measures to respond to the U.S. when it is necessary, including restrictions in “sensitive” areas of cooperation with the latter, which hopefully would not be affected for the moment. He added:
“We could imagine, theoretically, that one day a moment would come when the damage of attempts to put pressure on Russia will be comparable to the negative consequences of certain limitations of our cooperation. If that moment ever comes, we could discuss other response options. But I hope it will not come to that. As of today, I am against it.”
According Putin the above-mentioned areas mostly include the joint fight against terrorism, obligations in nuclear arms control and space projects rather than economic relations.
On Friday, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that it would scale down U.S. diplomatic staff in Russia to 455 people and seize a U.S. warehouse and a recreational compound in Moscow. It added that Russia reserves the right to give an adequate response if Washington takes further hostile measures.
F/AK – nsnbc 31.07.2017
Source Article from https://nsnbc.me/2017/07/31/russia-to-reduce-us-embassy-staff-by-755-people/
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