US scales back visa services in Russia after diplomatic row
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The United States said on Monday it was sharply scaling back its visa services in Russia after Moscow cut the number of its diplomatic staff in retaliation over new US sanctions.
The US embassy in Russia said in a statement it was suspending all nonimmigrant visa operations across Russia on Aug. 23 and that they would resume on Sept. 1 "on a greatly reduced scale."
The move means Russian citizens wanting to visit the United States for tourism will have to travel to Moscow and will no longer be able to use local US consulates outside the Russian capital.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, reacting to new sanctions imposed by the US Congress, has ordered Washington to cut its diplomatic and technical staff in Russia by 755 people by Sept. 1.
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that a US decision to sharply scale back its visa services in Russia was an attempt to stir up ill-feeling among ordinary Russians against the authorities.
He added that Russia would carefully study the US decision and promised that Moscow would not take out its anger on ordinary US citizens.