There is a new crisis between the USA and Russia. It started with the U.S. presidential election in November. Hillary Clinton's team said Russia interfered in the election. U.S. officials claimed that Russian hackers stole e-mails from the servers of Ms Clinton's party and put them on the Wikileaks website. The officials said Vladimir Putin wanted American voters to vote for Donald Trump. President Barack Obama promised to take action over the allegations. He has expelled 35 Russian diplomats from Washington. He also shut down two Russian intelligence compounds.
Russia has responded angrily to the expulsions. It has denied any hacking. It called the U.S. actions "ungrounded". Moscow has promised an "appropriate response" and "counter-measures". Any tit-for-tat measures may be less severe due to Mr Trump becoming President on January 20th. A Russian spokesman said: "These decisions were taken by President Obama, but Trump will become the head of state in three weeks' time. Of course, this factor will certainly be taken into account." Mr Trump wants to put US-Russian relations on a better footing. He has good relations with Mr Putin.