From the MT:
“U.S. Embassy to Cut Staff,
Most Visas for Russians as Moscow Bans ‘Unfriendly’ Hiring”
The U.S. Embassy in Moscow said
Friday it will cut most visa services for Russians and eliminate non-emergency
consular services for Americans from next month following Moscow’s hiring ban
on “unfriendly” countries. The move means 75% of consular staff will lose their
jobs.
Russian President Vladimir Putin
last week capped the number of Russians allowed to work in “unfriendly”
countries’ embassies, or banning their employment entirely. Russia’s Foreign
Ministry has indicated that the United States, which was involved in
tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions as recently as this month, is at the top of
the “unfriendly” list. “Effective May 12, U.S. Embassy Moscow will reduce
consular services offered to include only emergency U.S. citizen services” and
emergency immigrant visas, the embassy said in a statement. “Embassy Moscow
will not offer routine notarial services, Consular Reports of Birth Abroad, or
renewal passport services for the foreseeable future,” it specified. “Non-immigrant visa processing for
non-diplomatic travel will cease.” The mission urged U.S. citizens with
expiring visas to leave the country by June 15 or start the needed paperwork at
the Russian Interior Ministry to remain there legally.
Coming amid a flurry of
diplomatic expulsions over accusations of election interference and Russian
involvement in deadly explosions, Putin’s decree signed last Friday orders the
government to draw up a list of “unfriendly” states subject to the restrictions.
Russian state media leaked a draft list of the “unfriendly” countries
throughout the week. “We regret that the actions of the Russian government have
forced us to reduce our consular work force by 75%, and will endeavor to offer
to U.S. citizens as many services as possible,” the Embassy said. Its
announcement comes a month after Moscow became the only working U.S. diplomatic
mission in Russia as the U.S. slashed operations at its consulates in Russia’s
fourth-largest city of Yekaterinburg and the Far Eastern port of Vladivostok.
^ This is being done because
Putin is trying to push focus away from what he is doing inside Russia, inside
Ukraine and around the world. ^
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