| The British ambassador to Russia, Laurie Bristow, leaving the Foreign Ministry in Moscow on Saturday.CreditGleb Garanich/Reuters |
The order came days after Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain expelled the same number of Russian diplomats and called off high-level contacts between the two governments.
The Russians’ actions — which included an order to shut the British Council, a cultural and educational organization, in Russia and to revoke permission for the British consulate general in St. Petersburg — came after the British ambassador, Laurie Bristow, was summoned to the Foreign Ministry in Moscow on Saturday morning.