The formal reason was Russia’s ban on the hiring of employees in the diplomatic mission, which is why consular services allegedly will not be able to process visa requests.
According to channel 112 Ukraine, US Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan said that the US diplomatic mission in Russia from August will stop providing consular services to Russians, in particular, the issuance of visas will stop.
“After August 1, we will have very few people working here, which is why we will not be able to provide the consular services that I know both Americans and Russians need so much”, – Sullivan said.
He added that due to the reduction in the number of staff, consular services “are not able to process at least some visa applications”. Sullivan said that next week he would discuss with the deputy head of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Sergei Ryabkov the problems in the work of the American diplomatic mission on the territory of the Russian Federation.
“In my opinion, the most significant problem was the decree signed by the Russian government, according to which the United States and, as far as I understand, the Czech Republic were included in the list of unfriendly countries, as a result of which the United States lost the ability to hire in our diplomatic missions as Russian citizens. and third-country nationals”, – said Sullivan.
The diplomat added that these circumstances will affect the work of diplomatic missions in Russia.