<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Russia has announced the expulsion of 60 US diplomats and close its consulate in Saint Petersburg. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said yesterday that Moscow's decision was in retaliation to US action over a spy poisoning case in the UK. Lavrov said that the US ambassador had been informed of the retaliatory measures.&nbsp;</span></div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">&nbsp;</div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">US says Russia's move marks a further deterioration in the US-Russia relationship. Hours after Russia asked American diplomats to leave the country within seven days and shut down the St Petersburg Consulate within 48 hours, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said, the Russian response was not unanticipated, and the US will deal with it.&nbsp;</div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><br />''</div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Sanders said the expulsion of undeclared Russian intelligence officers by the US and more than two dozen partner nations and NATO allies earlier this week was an appropriate response to the Russian attack on the soil of the United Kingdom.&nbsp;</div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"></div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">The Trump administration had earlier ordered the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats and shutter the country's consulate general in Seattle following the poisoning of former Russian spy in Britain.&nbsp; &nbsp;</div>