US And Russia Relations Worsen Further With Tit For Tat Embassy Moves

By Donald Standeford, Correspondent - Follow -
Date Published: 2021-05-01 04:30AM UTC
Last Modified: 2021-05-03 11:22PM PST

The U.S. Embassy in Russia stated that it was cutting its consular staff by 75% as well as putting a stop to processing Russian non immigrant visas for non diplomatic travel, hitting back at Russia after the Kremlin instated limitations on the number of local staff the U.S. embassy in Russia is allowed to maintain.

These tit for tat moves began when U.S. President Joe Biden expelled 7 Russian diplomats and began enforcing sanctions against a few dozen Russian citizens and companies which had lead to Russia expelling 10 U.S. diplomats and putting restrictions on the amount of embassy staff that can be employed, and who can be hired and who cannot be.

The U.S. Embassy put out a statement saying "We regret that the actions of the Russian government have forced us to reduce our consular work force by 75%".

Russian Foreign Minister Dmitry Peskov stated "You know, here one has to look at the root cause of the tense situation that is developing in our bilateral relations. If you unravel the knot of unfriendly steps in the opposite direction, then it becomes obvious that the precursor to all of this is the unfriendly actions of the United States".

Peskov also stated that Russia "expected better" of Biden in his first 100 days in office, saying "We expected better. However, the fact that the New START treaty had been prolonged must not be forgotten. This is a positive impact. But this positive impact is small compared to the load of negativity that we accumulated in these 100 days. Unfortunately, this load still prevails".

These moves after Peskov made a statement that relations between the United States and Russia are Even Worse Now than they were during the cold war.