After months of imposing new sanctions against Russia, US diplomats reacted with shock and outrage after Russia imposed retaliatory sanctions against them over the weekend, calling the retaliation “uncalled for”
and threatening further retaliation to that.

Russia announced Friday that the US Embassy in Moscow will be limited to 455 employees in the future, and that they will be seizing a pair of properties owned by the embassy. These echo seizures and expulsions the US did to Russia back in December.

Though the embassy properties aren’t to be seized until September 1, the US Embassy claimed that Russia had locked them out of the dacha along the Moscow River today.

The Russian Foreign Ministry insisted that the US isn’t really “locked out” of the site yet, but that the embassy had sent trucks to the site without getting prior permission, which they would need since the property is inside a conservation area.

The dacha is primarily a recreation area for embassy staff, used for weekends outside the city and for parties. This was the same as the two sites the US seized back in December, which were both primarily recreational areas for Russia’s embassy staff.

Jason Ditz is news editor of Antiwar.com. View all posts by Jason Ditz

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