The Russian ambassador said that the State Department raised the issue of his departure from the United States – RBC
A new round of aggravation of relations between the United States and Russia in the field of lung representation in the spring of 2021. In the past, the White House announced the expulsion of ten Russian police officers from the United States. President Vladimir Putin instructed several admissions of Russians to work in the diplomatic mission of unfriendly countries of Russia – in the list of those who entered the United States and the Czech Republic.
In October 2021, the State Department announced that the US Embassy in Russia would be forced to reduce its work to technical functions due to a lack of staff. According to the representative office in the staff of the US Embassy in Moscow, they control from 1,200 people (in 2017) to 120 people.
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In March 2020, the US State Department announced the consumption of issuing visas and considering applications for their receipt at all embassies and consulates of the country due to the coronavirus pandemic, and in April 2021 the US Consulate General in Yekaterinburg was closed. Prior to this, the work of the US Consulates General in Vladivostok and St. Petersburg was suspended.
Thus, it was possible to get an American Russian woman only in Moscow. However, in the near future of May 2021, the US Embassy in Russia will cover the list of services, announcing that followers with initial visa questions are only for US citizens in Russia, and the issuance of visas to Russians will be conducted only if the questions concern “life and death.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the United States artificially limits the issuance of visas to Russians in order to “bargain unilateral concessions.” “Now the foreign side, associated with a “lack of personnel”, artificially limits the issuance of non-immigrant visas to Russia,” Lavrov said.
Earlier, the MI indicated that there was no detection of a massive presence in 455 diplomats on account of employees from the United States.