Expelled US diplomats leave embassy in Moscow

Dozens of US diplomats and their families left the embassy compound on three buses and a minibus that headed towards the airport after Moscow set today's deadline for the envoys to leave the country.

Moscow, April 5: The first of a group of 60 US diplomats who have been expelled from Russia in the wake of the poisoned spy row departed from Washington's embassy in Moscow today, an AFP reporter on the scene said.

Dozens of US diplomats and their families left the embassy compound on three buses and a minibus that headed towards the airport after Moscow set today's deadline for the envoys to leave the country.

Russia had expelled diplomats from 23 countries on March 31st in retaliation against the West in a spy row, in the biggest wave of tit-for-tat expulsions in recent memory.

The Russian foreign ministry said it had summoned the heads of missions from 23 countries -- almost all of them European Union member states -- to tell them that some of their diplomats had to leave.

PTI