Russian officials said Wednesday that U.S. diplomats who have stayed in the country longer than three years will have to leave by the end of next month.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told the Associated Press that the move is a response to a U.S. announcement that 27 Russian diplomats and their families would have to leave by January 30, then an equal amount would need to leave by the following year.

“We see the American demand as an expulsion and will respond in kind,” Zakharova said.

According to Russia’s RIA news agency, Zakharova said the new rules mentioned that the diplomats leaving the U.S. were banned from working as diplomats for three years.

The U.S. State Department argued that the Russian diplomats have to leave because their visas are expiring. However, the Russian ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, did not believe that, saying Washington officials could have extended the visas, and choosing not to effectively amounted to expulsion.

Antonov also called for the U.S. to remove several mutual restrictions on the Russian diplomats so they could “return to normal practice of diplomatic missions’ work.”

The U.S. diplomats will have to leave Russia by January 31. Al Jazeera reported that the decision comes just a day before top officials from both countries are scheduled to meet.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov are anticipated to meet Thursday at the Organization for Security and Cooperation on Europe summit in Stockholm.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Russia would halt its diplomat removal plan if the U.S. did the same.