"Nothing prevents the American side, as it has been repeatedly and at various levels said, from fully filling the more than sufficient quota of 455 people for the number of personnel, including the much-demanded consuls," the Russian diplomat said in a statement on the Foreign Ministry's website.
However, according to her, instead of this, the United States is sending incorrect data to the media about the alleged fourfold superiority of the Russian diplomatic presence in the United States over the American in Russia.
"Moreover, we are credited with the composition of our Permanent Mission to the UN in New York, which has nothing to do with bilateral diplomatic missions," Zakharova stressed.
Earlier, Zakharova said that the US authorities demanded that 55 employees of the Russian diplomatic mission and administrative and technical workers leave the territory of the United States in the coming months.
In August, the Russian ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, said that the Russian diplomatic mission to the United States had received a list of 24 diplomats who must leave the country.