“We again propose to stop the spiral of escalation and start a substantive, honest and mutually respectful talks on all existing irritants in bilateral relations,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said yesterday.

The official expressed that “the situation on the diplomatic front will only worsen”, in response to the new US measure demanding the withdrawal of 55 more Russian diplomats and administrative officials from the territory of that country in the coming months.

“We express that the stubbornness of realizing a confrontational scenario in the hope of achieving unilateral benefits by depriving us of oxygen will take them nowhere,” she said.

The Russian representative assured that every hostile action by Washington will be met with a response from Moscow that will be “swift, proportionate, but not necessarily symmetrical,” TASS news agency reported.

He warned that US authorities have about 130 people working in Russia, while the Russian diplomatic mission in Washington and the two Consulates General in New York and Houston total less than 200 employees.

The local Foreign Ministry spokeswoman recalled that the United States initiated this “spiral of confrontation” with the “destructive” practice of confiscating Russian diplomatic property and mass expulsion of employees of Russian institutions abroad.

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