On August 21, the US Embassy to Russia
declared suspension of non-immigrant visa issues to Russian citizens.
ASTANA,
August 29. /TASS/. Moscow will respond, including in kind, if Washington
hampers the operation of Russian consulates general in the US, Russian Deputy
Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told reporters on Tuesday.
"We want
American citizens’ trips to Russia to be carried out with minimal
obstacles," he stressed. "In this case, the US politics will not be a
reason for responding in kind. This would be counter-productive," the
diplomat added.
"First, we are ruled by the knowledge of what is beneficial to us and what we need and, second, [the desire] not to destroy anything proactively in relations with Russia or the possibility to develop contacts between people or in the sphere of economic relations development," Ryabkov noted. "So in visa sphere, despite the American far-reaching decisions, there will be no equal responses from our side, that’s for sure," he affirmed.
"If
Americans strive to complicate the operation of our embassies and consulates in
the US, then the issue of retaliatory measures, including responding kind, will
become especially important," the senior diplomate warned.
On July 28,
the Russian Foreign Ministry stated that Washington should equal the number of
its diplomatic and technical staff working in the US Embassy in Moscow and in
consulates general in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok to the
exact number of the Russian diplomats and technical staff working in the US in
response to the bill on new ant-Russian sanctions adopted by the US Congress.
This means that the total number of staff working in the US diplomatic and
consulate entities in Russia will be reduced to 455 people. President Vladimir
Putin specified that 755 American diplomats had to leave Russia.
On August
21, the US Embassy to Russia declared suspension of non-immigrant visa issues
to Russian citizens. Visa issuance will be renewed on September 1, but only in
Moscow. Consulates general in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok will
not issue visas.
Source: ITAR-TASS 29-08-2017
