The US Embassy in Russia announced its decision to suspend the issuance of non-immigrant visas throughout the country as of August 23.
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This is stated in a statement from the diplomatic mission, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
At the same time, the Americans cite the expulsion of some American diplomats from the Russian Federation as a reason.
“In connection with measures taken by the Russian Federation to limit the number of employees of the US diplomatic mission in the Russian Federation, starting from August 23, 2017, the procedure for issuing non-immigrant visas throughout Russia will be suspended,” the embassy said.
The embassy said that such actions by Moscow “call into question the seriousness of Russia’s desire to improve bilateral relations.”
“We will maintain the number of diplomatic mission employees at the level necessary to perform the key functions of our diplomatic missions,” the message says.
US consulates in Russia began canceling interviews from 09:00 on August 21. The embassy explained that the procedure for issuing visas in Moscow will resume on September 1 of this year. At the consulates it will be suspended indefinitely. Moreover, interviews that were scheduled earlier are cancelled. The procedure for determining a new date will be explained separately.
Let us recall that Russia’s decision to reduce the number of American diplomats in the Russian Federation was a response to the unfriendly expulsion of Russian embassy employees from the United States at the end of last month.
In turn, the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation called this decision of the Americans a “demarche.” “This is, of course, a demarche. We cannot remain in debt, everything here will obviously be mirrored,” said Andrei Klimov, deputy chairman of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs, head of the commission for the protection of state sovereignty.