They *could* have done but that would set in motion a chain reaction of tit-for-tat from hell to begin with, on top of a diplomatic and political crisis of epic proportions for dubious gain, putting russia's allies in a difficult position that they don't need, that nobody needs. At the same time this move is sending a cryptic message across the board. In every gvt there are factions at odds with each others, and bad blood. At odds not so much about the goal to attain ultimately, but on the way to eventually get there. Everybody is china first in the CCP for instance, at least on the surface. Now it's not a big club with only friends https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzPoIXXbiO8 It's pretty much the same deal everywhere, even saudi arabia and north korea, you probably heard stuffs already about internal power struggles over there https://youtu.be/pa-zBpB9Gf4?t=57 Long story short I think russia is signaling that it's at odds with one particular faction, which might not be that popular among US gvt factions, within the "swamp" itself and even among geopolitical allies of washington The US gvt is essentially a cartel, made of ruling families, branches, with top dogs and under dogs, and just like in gangster movies there's always some kind of power struggles running in the background, competition to determine ultimately who's going to rule them all, and in that regard the consensus is fragile during hard times. Everything's fine, more or less, during easy times, when everybody is happy. But when even a small majority within the "cartel" keeps getting served with a shit deal, when too much of them have a reason to complain, the status quo starts to be on shaky grounds evidently. And then of course when the entire enterprise has finally turned into a sinking ship that's when the "cartel" runs the risk to be at war with itself https://poal.co/s/geopolitics/639980 “He doesn’t want to be a rat on a sinking ship,”