Putin rejects tit-for-tat retaliation after US expels 35 Russian diplomats

Moscow

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin has decided against a tit-for-tat retaliation for outgoing US President Barack Obama's expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats from the United States over cyberattacks allegedly backed by the Kremlin and aimed at interfering with the 2016 election campaign.

"We won't send anyone away," Mr Putin said in a statement from the Kremlin after his Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov asked to approve a mirror expulsion of US diplomats in a televised meeting on Friday.

The Russian government accused the outgoing US administration of spending its last weeks in power trying to sabotage US President-elect Donald Trump's pledge to seek …