MOSCOW, December 9. /TASS/. Moscow does not rule out that Washington will want to lower the level of diplomatic relations with Russia or continue to expel diplomats, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Friday.
"It cannot be ruled out that the Americans will risk lowering the level of diplomatic presence or carrying out new mass expulsions [of diplomats]," he pointed out during the ‘Russia-US: What are the limits of confrontation?’ discussion on the platform of the Valdai International Discussion Club.
"However, the sense of self-preservation, as it seems to us, must still prevail. So there is hope that it will not come to this," the senior diplomat added.
According to Ryabkov, in building a dialogue with the US under any circumstances, Russia proceeds from the principle of reciprocity, "that is, as a rule, it acts according to the principle of an eye for an eye, but not necessarily symmetrically". "What I’ve said fully applies to ensuring the normal functioning of the two countries' diplomatic missions," he stressed, "In Washington, as in other Western capitals, they reflexively feel that any restrictive measures against Russian diplomatic missions will cause similar difficulties for their diplomatic missions in Russia, which they have no intention of closing for now.".