MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that it had summoned the US ambassador to Moscow, Lynn Tracy, to warn her that it would expel US diplomats it saw as interfering in its internal affairs.
Moscow issued this warning before the presidential elections scheduled for March 15-17 President Vladimir PutinRussia's supreme leader for more than 20 years is certain to win, provided there is an unexpected development.
The State Department said in a statement that it would monitor what it described as “acts of sabotage and the dissemination of information” related to the elections and what the Kremlin calls its own military operation in Ukraine.
Such behavior “will be resolutely and resolutely suppressed, including the expulsion of US Embassy personnel involved in such acts as persona non grata,” she said.
A US embassy spokesman said he had no immediate comment.
The State Department also called on the US embassy to stop supporting three American non-profit organizations that it said were running “anti-Russian programs” in the country aimed at “recruiting agents of influence under the guise of educational and cultural exchanges.”
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Andrew Osborne)
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