More than 20 countries have expelled Russian envoys, in solidarity with the United Kingdom.

Russia expelled 60 United States diplomats and closed the St Petersburg consulate in response to U.S. actions in a row over the poisoning of an ex-spy in Britain Thursday.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia would respond in kind to the expulsion of diplomats from Western countries and close down the U.S. consulate in St. Petersburg.

"The measures would be reciprocal... They include expulsion of the equivalent number of diplomats, and they include our decision to withdraw our agreement to allow the United States' general consulate to operate in St. Petersburg," Lavrov told a briefing in Moscow, Russia.

The moves were announced by Lavrov after a row over the nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy and his daughter in the UK.

Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were found unconscious on a bench in Salisbury, Wiltshire, southern England, on March 4.

More than 20 countries have expelled Russian envoys since the nerve agent attack.