OTTAWA — The office of Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland has confirmed that four Canadian diplomats are being expelled from Russia, a tit-for-tat retaliation after Canada declared four Russians persona non grata in solidarity with the United Kingdom earlier this week. “We can confirm that four Canadian diplomats have been declared person non grata by the Russian government,” said press secretary Adam Austen in a statement Friday morning. On Friday, Russia announced that it desired even fewer British diplomats to be operating on its soil, saying it ordered London to further reduce its number of envoys to Moscow to match the number of Russian diplomats in the U.K. The show of solidarity by Western nations united against actions by Russia is at a level unseen since the Cold War. On Tuesday, shortly after the U.S. announced it was expelling 60 individuals, Canada said it would be expelling four, from the Russian embassy in Ottawa and the consulate in Montreal.

Source: National Post March 30, 2018 16:18 UTC