It represents not only the largest American expulsion in more than 30 years, but also the largest collective expulsion in intelligence history. Given President Donald Trump's refusal to criticize Russian President Vladimir Putin, America's mass expulsion also comes as a pleasant surprise. Austria's far-right Freedom Party, which controls the interior and defense ministries, has formal ties to Putin's United Russia party. The second, no less important, is to make it tangibly harder for Russia to use its intelligence services to penetrate, subvert and intimidate Western nations. This is the worst week for Russia's intelligence service in decades, and marks the further collapse of Moscow's relationship with the West.

Source: CNN March 27, 2018 13:09 UTC