The U.S. in retaliation for what it calls the "widespread harassment" of its diplomats, announced Friday that it had withdrawn the credentials of five of Russia's honorary consuls based in California, Florida, Minnesota, Utah and Puerto Rico, with a sixth one based in Colorado spared from any punishment.
"This action is being taken in response to continued Russian interference with our diplomatic and consular operations in Russia, including, but not limited to, widespread harassment of our personnel, as well as the forced closure of the American Center in Moscow," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in a statement, according to Reuters.
"We are prepared to take further appropriate measures if there are additional efforts to impede our diplomatic and consular activities in Russia," he added.
Honorary consuls are generally U.S. citizens or green card holders who are provide consular assistance on behalf of a government in cities that are a long distance from full-time diplomatic missions.
The act prompted an angry response from the Russia, with ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accusing the U.S. of spreading anti-Russian propaganda and conducting "provocations against employees of Russian diplomatic missions, and not only in the United States," BBC News reported.
"We are indignant about Washington's decision to withdraw the accreditation of five out of six honorary consuls of the Russian Federation in the United States," she said.
"It is common knowledge that it was the United States that unleashed the sanctions aggression against Russia and is carrying out large-scale Russophobic propaganda all over the world trying to shirk responsibility for supporting the armed coup in Ukraine and the bloody war in [the eastern region of] Donbass," Zakharova added, according to the Tasim News Agency.
Ties between Russia and the U.S. have deteriorated in recent years, with the two nations only cooperating on a few issues, such as curbing Iran's nuclear program. Two major issues where the two disagree are the handling of the Syrian conflict, with Russia coming out in favor of Bashar al-Assads regime and the U.S. in favor of rebels trying to overthrow it, as well as the Ukrainian conflict, with the U.S. accusing Moscow of destabilizing the region and imposing a number of sanctions against Russian and pro-Russia figures as a result.
