It did not say how many of those were Russian.
Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev reacted strongly to the bill's signing, saying it showed a "fully-fledged trade war (has been) declared against Russia" and that "the Trump administration demonstrated complete impotence, in the most humiliating manner, transferring executive powers to Congress".
In December, President Barack Obama imposed further sanctions after the US intelligence community unanimously agreed that Russian hackers, at Putin's direction, had interfered with last year's presidential election. Political analyst Nikolai Shlyamin says McCain's consternation is understandable, given that Russian Federation is one of the few nations able to challenge United States hegemony.
On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the us diplomatic presence would be reduced to 455 people, so as to reflect the number of the remaining Russian diplomatic workers.
Seven months after Washington expelled 35 Russian diplomats under the pretext that United States diplomats were being oppressed in Moscow, Russia has expelled 755 American diplomats in response to new sanctions imposed by Washington.
The bill put U.S. President Donald Trump in a dilemma, but he has indicated he will sign the sanctions bill into law, which represents a sharp downturn in U.S. -Russia relations after signs that Trump wanted to develop a new partnership with Moscow.
USA intelligence agencies believe Russian Federation tried to sway the election in favour of President Donald Trump and now there are several investigations looking into whether anyone from his campaign helped.
But even if President Trump's statement that the meeting was about the adoption of Russian children were true, it's still potentially incriminating.
It was revealed that Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of President Trump, met a Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign after being promised "damaging" information about Hilary Clinton, the then Democratic presidential candidate running against his father. But the lopsided congressional approval of the sanctions left Trump with the prospect that if he vetoed the legislation, Congress would likely have overridden it.
It was left to Vice President Mike Pence, on a visit to North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member Estonia, to note obliquely that "we hope for. better relations with Russia", but that "recent diplomatic action by Moscow will not deter" USA defense of its Baltic allies against Russian "aggression".
After Moscow called the sanctions a declaration of "economic war" that had exposed the USA president's weakness, an angry Trump lashed out at his own lawmakers who had overwhelmingly approved the measures.
The diplomatic personnel reductions are the harshest such move since 1986, when Moscow and Washington expelled dozens of diplomats. The State Department called the measures "a regrettable and uncalled-for act", but said only that it is assessing its impact and is still determining a response. He served as US ambassador to Russian Federation from 2012-2014 during the Obama administration.
Pence told reporters during a visit to Estonia that "we hope for better days, and better relations with Russian Federation".
One local Russian employee at the embassy, who declined to be named when speaking to the media, said staff were still in the dark about their future employment.
"As for other possible measures, or is that too much or not, it is quite painful from the point of view of operating the diplomatic mission".
The Russian Foreign Ministry on Friday ordered a reduction by September 1 in the number of US diplomatic personnel in Russia. These hopes have now come to nothing. "Adoption of Russian children" is thinly veiled code for discussing lifting the Magnitsky Act and other USA sanctions on Russia.