- Russia ramps up diplomatic clash, expels more UK diplomats

People walk past the U.S. consulate in St. Petersburg, Russia, Friday, March 30, 2018. Russia announced the expulsion of more than 150 diplomats, including 60 Americans, on Thursday and said it was closing a U.S. consulate in retaliation for the wave of Western expulsions of Russian diplomats over the poisoning of an ex-spy and his daughter in Britain, a tit-for-tat response that intensified the Kremlins rupture with the United States and Europe. DMITRI LOVETSKY/AP MOSCOW — Russia ordered new c.