How does Russia respond to the suspension of non-immigrant visas in the United States?

According to reports, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said that the decision of the United States to stop and then restrict the issuance of visas to Russian citizens is obviously political and its purpose is to cause dissatisfaction. Russia will study this decision extra, but it will not "punish" the American people.

Earlier, it was reported that the US Embassy in Russia would suspend the issuance of non-immigrant visas to Russia from August 23rd. According to the news, the US Embassy in Moscow said that it would suspend the issuance of Russian non-immigrant visas from Wednesday (23rd) as a response to Russia's reduction of the number of American diplomats to 455.

The US Embassy said in a statement that "due to the measures taken by the Russian government against US diplomats in Russia, all non-immigrant visa business in Russia will be suspended on August 23."

It is reported that Moscow will resume on September 1 day, but the visa issuance of American consulates in other Russian cities "will still be suspended indefinitely". The US Embassy stated that all applications submitted will be cancelled and it will provide applicants with instructions on how to reschedule.

Regarding why the visa interview scheduled before September 1 was cancelled, the US Embassy responded that "because the Russian government set a deadline to reduce the number of diplomats before September 1, the staff had planned to leave and the number of staff began to decrease." The U.S. Embassy added that it will reduce its operational capacity due to the reduction of personnel.

American diplomats said, "personnel changes will also lead to restrictions on non-immigrant visa application arrangements. If the applicant is affected and the visa interview time and date change, we will contact the applicant. "

The US Embassy also indicated that it would suspend visa applications for Belarusian citizens and suggested that they go to the US embassies in Poland, Ukraine and Lithuania.