WASHINGTON, October 6. /TASS/. The US has decided to order two Russian diplomats to leave American territory in response to a recent similar move by Russia, the US State Department’s spokesperson told a TASS correspondent.

"In response to the Russian Federation’s specious expulsion of two US Embassy Moscow diplomats, the State Department reciprocated by declaring persona non grata two Russian Embassy officials operating in the United States. The Department will not tolerate the Russian government’s pattern of harassment of our diplomats. The Department’s actions send a clear message that unacceptable actions against our Embassy personnel in Moscow will have consequences," the spokesperson said.

On September 14, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported that two employees of the US Embassy in Moscow were declared personae non gratae. US Ambassador to Moscow Lynne Tracy was summoned to the Foreign Ministry, where she was handed a note explaining that the actions of the first and second secretaries of the embassy were incompatible with diplomatic status. These two employees of the American diplomatic mission in Moscow were ordered to leave Russia.

Tracy was issued an official note regarding the undiplomatic actions of Jeffrey Sillin, First Secretary of the Embassy, and David Bernstein, Second Secretary. According to the Foreign Ministry, these persons were engaged in illegal activities, maintaining contact with a Russian citizen, Robert Shonov, accused of "confidential cooperation" with a foreign state. As the authorities had previously stated, he was paid to carry out tasks that would damage Russia's national security.

Earlier, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) circulated footage of the interrogation of Shonov, a former employee of the US Consulate General in Vladivostok, in which he pleads guilty to collecting data on the course of a special military operation on instructions from diplomats from the political department of the American Embassy - Sillin and Bernstein. Shonov was charged with cooperation on a confidential basis with a foreign state (Article 275.1 of the Russian Criminal Code). The FSB sent subpoenas to the US Embassy to interrogate the diplomats who worked with Shonov.