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Second plane with Russian diplomats expelled from US arrives in Moscow

The Il-96 plane brought home 14 staff members of Russia’s Consulate General in New York and its Permanent Mission at the UN together with their families

© Stanislav Krasilnikov/TASS

MOSCOW, April 1. /TASS/. The second plane carrying Russian diplomats expelled by the United States over the so-called Skripal case has landed at Moscow’s Vnukovo-2 airport, a TASS correspondent reports from the scene.

The Il-96 plane brought home 14 staff members of Russia’s Consulate General in New York and its Permanent Mission at the UN together with their families.

At about 10:40 Moscow time, the first plane with Russian diplomats expelled from the United States landed at the Vnukovo-2 airport. The plane brought home 46 staff members of Russia’s embassy in Washington and their families.

Expulsion of diplomats

In a show of solidarity with London’s stance over the reported poisoning of former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, the United States declared 60 Russian diplomats personae non gratae on March 26. Among them are 46 diplomats from the embassy in Washington, two from the consulate general in New York and 12 more from Russia’s mission to the United Nations.

On Thursday, US Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman was summoned to Russia’s Foreign Ministry to be notified that Russia declared 58 diplomats of the US Embassy in Moscow and two staff members of the Consulate General in Yekaterinburg personae non gratae, they were ordered to leave the country by April 5. Besides, Russia revoked the consent to the operation of the US consulate-general in St. Petersburg.

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