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Number of US diplomats to leave Russia still unknown — source

The US Embassy in Russia did not explain TASS how many US diplomats are in Russia now and how many will have to leave the country

MOSCOW, July 28. /TASS/. The exact number of the staff members of the US diplomatic mission in Russia is changing all the time, so it is still unclear how many of them will leave the country, a source told TASS on Friday.

The US Embassy in Russia did not explain TASS how many US diplomats are in Russia now and how many will have to leave the country.

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According to the source, the presentation of the issue of how many diplomatic officials are residing in Russia "is incorrect, as this figure is changing."

"There is a considerable number of Russian citizens, there is a category of representatives of various American agencies who come here on a temporary basis, neither on long, nor on short (lasting a few days) business visits," he noted.

Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry proposed the US side to "equal the number of diplomatic and technical staff members working in the US Embassy in Moscow and in consulates general in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok to the exact number of Russian diplomats and technical staff members who are working in the US before September 1." "This means that the total number of staff working in US diplomatic and consulate entities in Russia will be reduced to 455 people," the ministry said in a statement. "In case the US authorities take new unilateral actions to reduce the number of our diplomats in the US, it will be responded in kind."

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