Russia expels 2 U.S. diplomats after fight

ABC: MOSCOW — Russia has expelled two American diplomats after the United States kicked out two Russian embassy staff to protest an incident in which a Russian police guard apparently tackled a U.S. diplomat outside its embassy in Moscow.

Sergey Ryabkov, a Russian deputy foreign minister, announced that the American diplomat involved in that incident had been declared “persona non grata” along with another person he called a “CIA operative”. In a statement posted on the ministry’s website, Ryabkov said the two were expelled in June after the U.S. threw out the two Russian diplomats.

The scuffle that prompted the expulsions occurred June 6, when a U.S. diplomat trying to enter the embassy was tackled by a Russian police guard. A CCTV video of the struggle was aired by Russian television channel NTV this week.

In the video, a man is seen exiting a taxi outside the entrance of the embassy and swiftly making for the door. Before he can reach it, a guard springs from his security cabin and slams the diplomat into the wall, with both men falling to the ground. With the guard on top of him, the diplomat eventually manages to drag himself on his back across the threshold of the embassy, which as U.S. territory is off-limits to the guard.  more