On Friday, Russia announced that it would expel ten US diplomats and blacklist US officials in retaliation for their actions, and advising the US ambassador in Moscow to flee the country for "consultations."

In retaliation for what Washington claims that Kremlin is meddling in the US election, a major cyber assault, and other aggressive conduct, the US announced sanctions and the expulsion of ten Russian diplomats on Thursday. "This measure will be confronted with a tit-for-tat response. We will request the departure of ten US diplomats in Russia "Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, told reporters.

He also said that Yury Ushakov, President Vladimir Putin's top foreign policy adviser, had suggested that US envoy John Sullivan travel to Washington for "significant discussions."

According to Lavrov, Russia will post a list of US officials who will be blacklisted later on Friday. He did, however, claim that Moscow was "planning to study" US Vice President Joe Biden's plan to meet with Putin. In response to a similar action by Warsaw, Lavrov said that Russia would remove Polish diplomats.

The sanctions tightened restrictions on US banks dealing in Russian government borrowing, removed ten diplomats, including suspected spies, and sanctioned 32 people suspected of interfering in the 2020 presidential election in the US. The sanctions, according to Biden, are an "evaluated and appropriate" response to Moscow's acts of aggression, and the US does not want to "start a loop of escalation and confrontation."

In March, Russia summoned its US ambassador to Moscow for discussions on the future of the two countries relations. Biden made the unusual move after saying Putin would "face consequences" for suspected election tampering and agreeing with the statement that he is a "killer."