The British ambassador to Moscow arrived at the Russian Foreign Ministry building following the strained relations between the two countries.
The British ambassador to Moscow was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry on Friday.
According to Reuters, the meeting followed the deterioration of relations between Moscow and London after the summoning of the Russian ambassador to the British Foreign Office.
Reuters quoted the British embassy as saying the meeting was pre-arranged.
The British Foreign Office announced in a statement on Thursday night that it had summoned Russia’s ambassador to Britain. Rashatoudi was quoted as saying by the British Foreign Office that “Andrei Karilin” was summoned in response to reports of Russian cyber-attacks and the deployment of troops to the Ukrainian border.
The summons came after the US government imposed new sanctions on 32 Russian individuals and entities on Thursday.
In a statement, the White House accused ten Russian diplomats of spying and called on them to leave the United States, in addition to announcing new sanctions under the pretext of Russian interference in the US election and cyber-attack.
The sanctions are based on a US Presidential executive order declaring a “national state of emergency” against Russia, which will take effect on June 14 this year and include six Russian technology companies.
The White House said under the sanctions, the US Treasury Department will prevent US companies from exchanging funds with institutions and individuals under the sanctions.
Following the announcement of the sanctions, “John J. Sullivan, US Ambassador to Russia, summoned to Russian Foreign Ministry.