Russia and the United States will be able to replace the deported diplomats with new employees.

The State Department confirmed that the United States and Russia could replace the diplomats sent last week with new employees. He writes about thisVoice of America"referring to CNN broadcaster.

The broadcaster referred to a State Department employee who called the process standard practice in cases where employees are declared persona non grata and sent. At the same time, he noted that the approval of candidates for new diplomats will be held “on an individual basis”.

“As in all similar incidents in the past, the Russian government has the right to request accreditation to fill vacancies in their bilateral mission,” a State Department spokesman told CNN. “All requests for new diplomatic accreditations will be considered on an individual basis.”

“The Russian Federation did not inform us of the intention to reduce the total number of personnel allowed by our bilateral mission,” he added. “Thus, we understand that the United States can make a request to fill in the positions of the expelled diplomats with new diplomatic personnel.”

Recall that 26 March has learned that the US authorities have decided send Russian diplomats from 60and also to close the Russian consulate in Seattle. Such a decision on the consulate was made due to its territorial proximity to the military base of submarines, the plant of the corporation Boeing in Seattle, Wash., and in response to Russia's use of military-type chemical weapons in Britain.

The former GRU officer Sergey Skripal and his daughter Julia were found unconscious on a bench in Salisbury March 4. They were taken to the hospital in critical condition, they are still in a coma, doctors estimate their condition as consistently severe. The police found that they were poisoned by a nerve agent. About 20 people were poisoned, including the policeman who first visited the scene and the house of Skripal. On the fact of poisoning a case of attempted murder.

In Russia, Skripal in 2006 year was convicted of espionage in favor of British intelligence MI6. In 2010, he was exchanged for Russian intelligence agents uncovered in the United States.

Mutual expulsion from the countries of American and Russian diplomats began on December 29 2016, when 44 th President of the USA Barack Obama signed a decree obliging Russian diplomats 35 to leave America. This document also closed their colleagues with access to two real estate properties in the states of New York and Maryland, which, according to American intelligence, were used by Russians for espionage.

In response, Russia banned the US Embassy from using a summer cottage in Serebryany Bor and storage facilities on Dorozhnaya Street in the south of Moscow. Russian authorities also expressed the need reducing the American embassy to xnumx people, to equalize their number with the number of employees in the Russian diplomatic mission in the United States.

In response to this, the US Embassy in Russia suspended the issuance of non-immigrant visas August 23 to September 1 2017. The issuance of renewed 1 September, but only in Moscow (before a visa could also be obtained in the consulate general in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok).

In addition, in response The United States decided to close the Russian Consulate General in San Francisco and some sales offices in Washington and New York.