US President Donald Trump decided to expel dozens of Russian diplomats because of the Skripal case under the influence of Gina Haspel, who in 2018 was the deputy director of the CIA ( Central Intelligence Agency), and now heads this department. About this writes The New York Times, citing former intelligence officers.
According to the newspaper, initially the American leader was not going to follow the example of Britain and expel Russian diplomatic staff, but Haspel managed to convince him.
At the same time, Haspel assured Trump that Sergey and Julia Skripal were not the only victims. For this, she showed Trump photos of children allegedly poisoned with Novichok nerve agent, as well as dead birds.
After that, Trump decided to expel Russian diplomats.
