Russia expels 4 Polish diplomats in retaliation move

The Russian foreign ministry ordered four Polish diplomats to leave the country by April 7 in retaliation for Warsaw’s decision to expel four Russian diplomats following the murder attempt on the former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal on the British soil. “Poland’s ambassador Włodzimierz Marciniak was invited to the Russian Federation’s foreign ministry where he was informed that four Polish diplomats were recognized as undesirable persons,’ said Poland’s foreign ministry in a statement. At the same time, Russia expelled nearly 120 diplomats from 24 countries and closed the US consulate in St Petersburg. The move, which is the biggest ejection of diplomats since the Cold War, follows over 130 Russian diplomats being ousted in countries all over the world. Earlier this month, Skripal, a former double agent, and his daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a bench outside a shopping center in Salisbury after they were poisoned. The two remain in critical condition in a hospital. The authorities were able to confirm, that Novichok, a nerve agent developed by the Soviet military in the 1970s and 1980s was used to poison them. Skripal was arrested in Moscow in 2004. He was later sent to the UK in exchange for captured Russian spies.