Russia expels deputy chief of U.S. embassy in Moscow

Feb. 17 (UPI) -- The State Department confirmed Thursday that Russia expelled Bart Gorman, the deputy chief of the mission at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.

Gorman and his family left Moscow on Feb. 10, but the reason has not been made public, according to the website Diplopundit. Gorman served as the chargé d'affaires at the Russian embassy after the departure of Ambassador Jon Huntsman from 2017 to 2019. He served as deputy when John Sullivan took the lead post in January 2020.

"Russia's action against our DCM was unprovoked and we consider this an escalatory step and are considering our response," a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department said, according to Radio Free Europe/RadioLiberty.

The move comes as the United States and NATO continued their criticism of the Kremlin for amassing more than 130,000 troops along the Russian-Ukrainian border, calling it a pretext to an invasion of the country.

Russia has repeatedly rejected and even mocked U.S. officials sounding the alarm about a possible invasion of Ukraine.