美国有线新闻 CNN 超20国驱逐俄罗斯外交人员 美关闭俄驻西雅图总领馆（在线收听）

CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: International pressure on Russia is our first subject today on CNN 10.

I'm Carl Azuz, explaining world news from the CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you for taking 10 minutes for our show.

More than 20 countries have asked some of the Russian diplomats who are staying there to leave. This is seen as an international show of support for the United Kingdom, where a former Russian spy who lives there and his daughter were poisoned early this month. The U.K. says it's, quote, highly likely that Russia poisoned the pair who are still alive but in critical decision at a British hospital.

Russia has denied being involved, calling the accusations nonsense, saying that it had no motive to poison its former spy and saying that it doesn't make the poison used in the attack. But several other countries, including the U.S., believe Britain's assessment that Russia probably was involved in the poisoning. And after Britain responded by expelling more than 20 Russian diplomats from the U.K., other nations are taking action like it.

The United States, a close ally of Britain, told 60 Russians to leave, and closed the Russian consulate in Seattle, Washington. That's seen as the Trump administration's toughest diplomatic action against Russia so far.

While that country says it deeply regrets America's decision, there are some nations standing with Russia. China for instance is telling other countries to, quote, abandon a Cold War mentality and avoid taking any actions that would aggravate the conflict with Russia. It doesn't look like the U.S. will take that advice.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: While we haven't heard from Russian President Vladimir Putin yet on this unprecedented move, but we know that the Russian ambassador to the U.S. has already warned pretty starkly that the time is going to come that the U.S. is going to realize that this was in his words a grave mistake. In return, the Trump administration has warned right back that if Russia does expel U.S. diplomats, which we fully expect them to do, then the U.S. could well take some additional action against Russia.

But look at the scope of this now. It's now up to 25 countries that have worked together to craft the biggest mass expulsion of Russian diplomats in history.

In the U.S., it's the largest number, too. Sixty of them, 12 will be kicked out of the U.N. in New York. The rest are spread around the U.S.

The U.S. is closing down the Russian consulate in Seattle entirely, saying that it's too close to a U.S. submarine base there. And, in fact, the administration isn't even really calling these people diplomats at this point. It's flat-out calling them spies, saying that they are aggressive collectors of intelligence and that the U.S. is going to be safer without them.