Tension increases again between Putin-Biden, America asks 2 Russian diplomats to leave the country

The Biden administration on Friday ordered the expulsion of two Russian diplomats from the United States in retaliation for the expulsion of two American diplomats from Moscow last month. The State Department said it took the action in response to Russia declaring two US diplomats persona non grata due to their contacts with a Russian citizen who once worked for the now-closed US Consulate in the Russian far-eastern city of Vladivostok. Worked and was arrested.

Spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement that the department will not tolerate the Russian government’s pattern of harassment of our diplomats. Unacceptable actions against our embassy personnel in Moscow will have consequences. The expulsions come at a time when Washington and Moscow are at loggerheads over the war in Ukraine and diplomatic relations have reached their worst level since the Cold War. On September 14, the Russian Foreign Ministry accused Jeffrey Silin, First Secretary of the US Embassy in Russia, and David Bernstein, Second Secretary, of the US Embassy in Russia, of illegal activity and ordered them to leave the country within seven days.

The ministry said they had been in contact with Robert Shonov, a former consular employee who was accused of gathering information for US diplomats about Russia’s military actions in Ukraine and related issues. Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, reported Shonov’s arrest in August. The FSB said they had “collected information about special military operations, mobilization processes in Russian regions, problems and an assessment of their impact on the protest activities of the population in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election.