“We are always looking at this and we’ll continue to do so,” Blinken told reporters when asked whether the United States would follow in the European Union footsteps and expel Russian diplomats.
Blinken said sometimes it is essential to deal with diplomats from various countries who have “an adversarial relationship with the truth.” “That’s part of the job,” he added.
On Wednesday, the European Union declared 19 employees of Russia's Permanent Mission to the bloc personae non gratae for being involved in activities inconsistent their diplomatic status, the EU foreign policy service said in a statement.
The Russian Embassy in the United States said in late March that the State Department, when welcoming EU members' decisions to expel Russian diplomats, contradicts Washington's statements about its commitment to diplomatic work.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier that in order to stop the expulsion of US diplomats from Russia, Washington must stop ordering Russian diplomats out of the United States.