The Russian foreign ministry today vowed to retaliate against the expulsions of its diplomats by the United States and Canada, as well as 14 European Union countries and Ukraine over the poisoning of a former spy in Britain.
"We express a decisive protest over the decision taken by a number of EU and NATO countries to expel Russian diplomats," the ministry said in a statement, calling the moves a "provocative gesture" and promising that this "unfriendly step... will not pass without trace and we will respond to it.