Furthering the row over spy poisoning, Russia took another step and expelled a total of 59 diplomats from 23 countries.

The move was a part of retaliation for the wave of ejection of Russian officials from US and other countries over alleged nerve agent attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal in the southern English city of Salibury.

The move by Russia comes a day after the expulsion of 60 US diplomats which was done in retaliation of Washington earlier this week.

Along with the expulsion, Russia also revoked the permit issued to the US consulate in St Petersburg, which means it must shut down and issued a protest note to the US Ambassador to Moscow, Jon Huntsman by terming the action against Russia as “outrageous and unwarranted”.

Russia has for once retaliated in kind against the UK government for expelling 23 diplomats over the first known use of a military-grade nerve agent in Europe since World War II.

In the most recent days, 25 European countries, US, Canada and Australia expelled more than 120 Russian diplomats in what seemed to be showing solidarity with the United Kingdom after the alleged attack.

NATO was another one to fall in line, by announcing seven officials working in the Russian mission to the alliance to leave.

On Friday, senior envoys from most of the countries that have expelled Russian diplomats from their countries were summoned to the Russian foreign ministry, a reporting agency has said.

“One after another, black ambassadorial cars have been pulling up herr outside the Russian foreign ministry and the ambassadors have been walking in to essentially get a dressing-down from the foreign ministry staff and be told how many of their personnel has to be packing their bags to leave,” he said.

“What we are seeing here is the worsening of diplomatic relations, a tit-for-tat response,” added Challands, describing the crisis as “severe”.

“Its catalyst has been the Skripal affair but, of course, there is so much else behind all this, so much that’s gone on over the last few years – with the Russian campaign in Syria, with what’s been going in Crimea and Ukraine, that has worsened relations between the West and Russia.”

UK Prime Minister Theresa May has said she has got evidence with her to prove Russian involvement in the spy poisoning case.

As per the reports, Yulia is no longer in a critical condition and is improving rapidly, doctors said on Thursday. Sergeis still remains in critical but stable condition.

Britain’s government says the nerve agent used in the attack, Novichok, was made in Russia. Moscow has repeatedly denied accusations that it was involved in the assassination attempt.

With these steps there seems to be imminent divide between the two blocks of Russia and Europe.

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