In astonishing scenes, scores of ambassadors streamed into the Russian Foreign Ministry and were hauled into an office one-by-one in front of television cameras, to be told how many of their staff would be ordered out.

The countries informed of expulsions were Australia, Albania, Germany, Denmark, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Canada, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Ukraine, Finland, France, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Sweden and Estonia.

Russia is considering mirroring expulsions of diplomats from Belgium, Hungary, Georgia and Montenegro.

Earlier in the week, 60 US diplomats were expelled and the US consulate in St. Petersburg closed in retaliation for Washington's moves.

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Britain and Russia have already expelled 23 of each other's diplomats over the first known use of a military-grade nerve agent on European soil since World War Two, but Laurie Bristow, Britain's ambassador, was summoned again on Friday.

Bristow was told that it must reduce the number of its diplomats in Moscow to the level that Russia has in London. That exact number wasn't immediately clear.

When Britain expelled 23 Russian diplomats earlier this month, Russian Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko said it represented a 40 percent cut in the number of embassy personnel.

Commenting on the Russian move, a spokeswoman for the British Foreign Office said: "It's regrettable but in light of Russia's previous behavior, we anticipated a response."

"However, this doesn't change the facts of the matter: the attempted assassination of two people on British soil, for which there is no alternative conclusion other than that the Russian state was culpable," she said. "Russia is in flagrant breach of international law and the Chemical Weapons Convention and actions by countries around the world have demonstrated the depth of international concern."

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The expulsions affect not only the diplomats but their families as well, forcing them to take their children out of school in the middle of the year.

A hospital treating the Skripals said on Thursday that the 33-year-old daughter Yulia was improving rapidly and was now in stable condition, although her 66-year-old father remained in critical condition.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted that "Russia didn't start any diplomatic wars," and "remains open for developing good ties".

He added that Russia has called a meeting of the international chemical weapons watchdog next week to press for an "unbiased and objective investigation".

Russia has accused Britain of failing to back up its accusations with evidence and refusing to share materials from the probe.

The Russian Embassy in London tweeted a statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman Maria Zakharova saying that Britain and the US "do most to undermine any trust element in international relations".

Earlier this week, the Russian Foreign Ministry alleged that British special services could have been involved in the poisoning and claimed that Britain, the US, the Czech Republic and Sweden all have researched the class of nerve agent that London said was used to poison Skripal.

After Russia expelled several dozen US diplomats, the waiting list for US visa applications in Russia has increased to weeks, if not months, as the US Embassy said it was unable to process visa applications faster because of the staff shortage.

Russia also warned that the expulsions of its diplomats could slow down issuing visas.

In a statement that reflects the soaring tensions, Moscow accused Washington of trying to recruit the Russian diplomats it has expelled as spies.