Now Russia Hits Back Over Sanctions As Orders American diplomats to leave Russia

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Russia told the United States on Friday that some of its diplomats had to leave the country in just over a month and said it was seizing some US diplomatic property as retaliation for what it said were proposed illegal US sanctions.

 Russia's response, announced by the Foreign Ministry, came a day after the US Senate voted to slap new sanctions on Russia, putting President Donald Trump in a tough position by forcing him to take a hard line on Moscow or veto the legislation and anger his own Republican Party.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday that the United States had until September 1 to reduce its diplomatic staff in Russia to 455 people, the same number of Russian diplomats it said were left in the United States after Washington expelled 35 Russians in December.

 It said in a statement that the decision by Congress to impose new sanctions confirmed "the extreme aggression of the United States in international affairs." "Hiding behind its 'exceptionalism' the United States arrogantly ignores the positions and interests of other countries," said the ministry. 

"Under the absolutely invented pretext of Russian interference in their domestic affairs the United States is aggressively pushing forward, one after another, crude anti-Russian actions. This all runs counter to the principles of international law." 

It was not immediately clear how many US diplomats and other workers would be forced to leave the country. An official at the US embassy in Moscow, who declined to be named because they were not allowed to speak to the media, said there were around 1,100 US diplomatic staff in Russia.

 That included Russian citizens and US citizens.

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