Washington The US has asked nearly 50 Russian diplomats suspected of being intelligence officers to leave, partly in retaliation for the case of FBI agent Robert Hanssen, accused of spying for Moscow for over 15 years, a US official said.
The expulsion declared about a half dozen of the Russian officials personae non grata for alleged spying activities, the official said. The rest were in response to US concerns that Russia has had too many intelligence officers in the US.