Russians have voted to shutter the U.S. Consulate in St. Petersburg in response to the closure of Russia’s consulate in Seattle over the poisoning of a former spy in Britain.
U.S. President Donald Trump announced Monday the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats from the country in a coordinated move with over a dozen European countries, Canada, Australia and Ukraine. Moscow vowed retaliatory measures, and the Twitter account of the Russian Embassy in Washington issued a poll on Monday asking which of the three American consulates should Russia close.
With over 57,000 of the votes cast by the time the vote closed on Tuesday, 47 percent of respondents said the U.S. Consulate in St. Petersburg should pack its bags and leave.
The vote comes a week after Russia unveiled the names for a new generation of nuclear-powered missiles touted as invincible by Putin after more than seven million people took part in a public vote organized by the Defense Ministry.
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