aas.ru
A Moscow school for Western diplomats’ children was reported to have received an order Thursday to shut down, in what appeared to be the first blowback over the U.S. response to Russia’s election interference. The Anglo-American School of Moscow, a nonprofit school for pre-kindergarten kids through 12th grade, attended by children of American, British, and Canadian diplomats, received an order from the Russian government to cease operations Thursday, just hours after U.S. sanctions were announced, CNN reported. It’s unclear if the school was given a deadline, but the closure appears aimed at driving Western diplomats out. The move came as Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov promised to make U.S. officials “very uncomfortable” in response to the sanctions. On Facebook early Friday, Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for Russia’s foreign ministry, denied the school was closed as retaliation and slammed the CNN report as “a lie.” Her post ended with a dig at President Obama: “Normally, people ask Santa Claus to bring them something. This year I am asking him to take someone away.”