Photo:
RIA Novosti
Russia will not respond to U.S. restrictions on issuing visas to Russians, said the official representative of Russian foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova.
“With regard to visas and the horror that the Americans staged with visas, then there will be no answer, because — you are right — it is some kind of genocide of ordinary people” , — she told in interview to TV channel “Rain”.
Speaking about the decision of Washington, Zakharov expressed the view that ” this is a targeted attack on Russian citizens by the United States of America.”
She also expressed surprise at the timing and procedures for obtaining a us visa. “That can be purchased for 80 days? Or fifty days? I sometimes read that the Americans say that they give our citizens visa a lot, and our… well, who to us goes. You know, that might’ve been true twenty years ago. Now we have the comparable numbers for the issuance of visas. We give out — we brought on the Ministry’s website, these figures — viz the huge number of Americans. We do it clearly, without any personal confrontations that came up at the American Embassy. We can complete the documents online,” she said.
“Why in the XXI century to maintain the procedure of the confrontation in the Embassy for visa? This is nonsense,” — said the representative of the Russian foreign Ministry.
This summer Moscow has ordered to reduce the U.S. diplomatic mission in Russia to 755 to 455 employees. Thus, Moscow has equated the number of employees of the U.S. Embassy in Russia, the number of employed in the Russian diplomatic mission in the United States.
After that, the U.S. has suspended the procedure for issuing non-immigrant visas across all Russia, from September 1 this procedure resumes, but only at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. Washington explained the innovations to the reduced number of staff of the diplomatic mission in Russia. Early American visa issued Consulate in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok.