Putin orders Trump to slash envoys in Russia

Donald Trump’s bromance with Vladimir Putin and his dream of a closer relationship with Moscow has ended badly.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump at the G20 Summit in Hamburg.

Donald Trump’s bromance with Vladimir Putin and his dream of a closer relationship with Moscow has ended badly after the Russian President ordered the ousting of 755 envoys from US diplomatic missions across the country.

The angry and sweeping ­response by Mr Putin came after the US congress voted overwhelmingly to slap new sanctions on Moscow. It confirms that Russia has finally given up hope of closer ties with the US under Mr Trump, as a familiar Cold War-style chill now descends on the ­relationship. Mr Trump is likely to sign the new sanctions law despite the White House previously ­opposing such a move.

Russia has ordered 755 people, Americans and Russians, to be cut from the staff of US embassies and consulates around the country by September 1. About 1200 people are currently employed in US ­embassies and consulates across Russia.

“We had hoped that the situation will somehow change, but apparently if it changes, it won’t be soon,” Mr Putin said after congress passed new sanctions in response to Russian meddling in the US election. “I thought it was the time to show that we’re not going to leave it without an answer.”

The US State Department ­described the Russian move as “a regrettable and uncalled-for act”.

Mr Putin said he expected relations to worsen further, and vowed to introduce more measures against Washington.

The Russian leader decided on the punitive reaction knowing that Mr Trump is powerless to stop the new sanctions from ­becoming law because congress designed the legislation to survive a presidential veto.

The sanctions bill has placed Mr Trump is a difficult position. While a symbolic veto would signal to Moscow that Mr Trump still wants better relations, it would cause an outcry in the US at a time when the administration is being investigated over Russian ­attempts to interfere in last year’s US election.

The White House initially said Mr Trump would sign the bill before suggesting he would review it to make final decision.

Mr Trump has held out the prospect of closer ties since early in his campaign but his courting of Russia has caused only problems. It has been strongly criticised by many of his fellow Republicans and by Democrats after US intelligence agencies ­accused Russia of trying to influence the US election in favour of Mr Trump.

Since then, the President and his administration have been ­entangled in an ever-growing ­investigation — now headed by special counsel Robert Mueller — into Russia’s attempts to influence the election, including whether any Trump associates sought to collude with Moscow.

By the time Mr Trump and Mr Putin met in Germany last month, there was little political scope for Mr Trump to improve relations with Moscow.

The sanctions bill passed the Senate by 98 votes to two, and the house by 419 votes to three, in one of the first large bipartisan bills passed during the Trump presidency.

The move takes US Russian relations back to the low point they were at in the dying days of the Obama administration.

In December, US president Barack Obama expelled 35 Russians in retaliation for Moscow’s interference in the election.

Mr Putin has denied that Russia attempted to influence the election, but US intelligence found Russian spies were behind the hacking of emails from the Democratic National Committee and their leaking to WikiLeaks.