Russia is recalling its ambassador to the United States for consultations, the foreign ministry said Wednesday without citing a specific reason.

The move to bring Anatoly Antonov to Moscow comes amid rising tensions with President Joe Biden�s administration, which has imposed sanctions over the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is now in prison.

It also comes on the heels of a declassified report from the US national intelligence director�s office that finds President Vladimir Putin authorized influence operations to help Donald Trump in last November�s presidential election.

In a television interview aired on Wednesday, Biden was asked whether he thought Putin is a killer and said �I do.�

�(Putin) will pay a price,� Biden said, asked about the declassified report.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova did not cite specific reasons for Antonov�s return but said that relations �are in a difficult state, which Washington has brought to a dead end in recent years.�

�We are interested in preventing their irreversible degradation, if the Americans are aware of the associated risks,� she added.

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said: �We will be direct, we will speak out on areas where we have concerns, and it will certainly be, as the president said last night � certainly, the Russians will be held accountable for the actions that they have taken.�

(AP)