It follows a recent decree singed by President Vladimir Putin which prevents listed country embassies from being able to hire Russian citizens to work at their diplomatic and consular missions. It's common practice for foreign embassies to hire staff from the local host countries for certain functins..

Zakharavo in a weekend interview had said this 'naughty list' was triggered ultimately by "another round of unfriendly actions by the US" - a reference to Biden's latest sanctions on Kremlin officials and Russian companies for the SolarWinds hack and alleged election interference. 

"What are those unfriendly states? The list is being compiled now," she previously Rossiya 1 TV channel. "As you understand, and I can confirm it, the US is, obviously, present" she said while stopping short of naming other specific countries. 

On Tuesday state media sources indicated the following are likely be included: 

United States

United Kingdom

Canada

Poland

Ukraine

Czech Republic

some Baltic states

In all about ten countries are expected to be named on the 'blacklist'.