Foreign

Russian plane arrived in USA to evacuate expelled diplomats

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The plane Landed at Dulles airport in Virginia

As promised by the Russian government, a plane has landed at the Dulles International Airport in Virginia, to transport the 35 Russian diplomats and their families, who were expelled by President Obama for their alleged meddling in the presidential election, back to their country.

The aircraft was spotted at the airport in Sterling, just outside of Washington, DC, on Saturday.

The special flight arrived to pickup the Russian diplomats from across the country who were labeled ‘persona non grata’ by Obama and given 72 hours to leave the US.

U-Haul trucks were seen pulling up to the aircraft as it was packed down with the diplomats’ belongings.

The Kremlin addressed the expulsion on Friday and said they would send the plane to the US to pick up the expelled diplomats, ensuring that they are out of the country by Obama’s New Year’s Day deadline.

In their announcement on Twitter, the Kremlin included a picture of the Rossiya Special Flight Squadron aircraft that landed in Virginia.

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The plane, an Ilyushin Il-96, is part of the fleet of aircraft which ferry Russian President Vladimir Putin, his ministers and senior politicians around Russia and beyond.

Earlier on Saturday, Russian officials revealed that one of the diplomats from the consulate in California is a chef.

In a Facebook post by the Consulate General of Russia in San Francisco, dozens of the expelled diplomats and their families were expected to ‘fly back to Russia on Saturday’.

A photo of the last dinner for some of the diplomats was posted on Facebook with the caption: ‘It’s so difficult to remain diplomatic… but we will.’

The consulate also called Obama’s expulsion of the diplomats in Washington, DC, and San Francisco, ‘bizarre and ridiculous’ and mentioned that one of the expelled individuals is a chef, who ‘will be leaving with his wife and two-year old son’.

‘We strongly condemn the unfriendly and completely unjustified step taken by the outgoing US administration,’ officials from the consulate wrote.

Two of the Russian country clubs, one in New York and the other in Maryland, were also shut down by noon on Friday.

One of the country clubs that was vacated shortly after Obama’s announcement was the Upper Brookville home, also known as Elmcroft, in Long Island.

It was shut down after Obama said he would be closing a Russian compound in New York that had been used for intelligence gathering.

Putin’s reaction to the expulsion

Russian President Vladimir Putin held his rival Barack Obama up to ridicule on Friday by declining to engage in tit-for-tat expulsions.

Putin had been expected to mirror Obama’s decision to expel 35 intelligence agents with Cold War style revenge expulsions. His foreign minister had called for the measure, but instead Putin said he was waiting to deal with incoming President Donald Trump.

‘We will not create problems for American diplomats. We will not expel anyone,’ Putin said in a statement, also inviting children of U.S. diplomats to a holiday party at the Kremlin.

 

 

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