U.S. not issuing nonimmigrant visas in Russia

MOSCOW — In the latest tit-for-tat in the diplomatic standoff between the United States and Russia, the U.S. Embassy in Moscow announced Monday that it will suspend visa processing for Russian applicants beginning Wednesday.

The move is a response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s order for the U.S. to cut its staff at the American Embassy and three consulates by 755 people by Sept. 1. Russia also seized a warehouse and a resort complex in Moscow used by U.S. diplomatic staff.

The State Department hasn’t said how many U.S. diplomats will be forced to leave and how many Russian nationals and others who work for the U.S. government will be laid off.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said he will respond by Sept. 1 but has not given a public assessment of how the cuts could affect the vast array of embassy-backed services in Russia, from assisting U.S. businesses to enforcing arms control agreements.

U.S.-Russia relations have deteriorated since Moscow seized Crimea and backed separatists in eastern Ukraine in 2014, prompting U.S. sanctions.

They worsened last year when U.S. intelligence agencies determined that the Kremlin interfered in the presidential race in a bid to help Donald Trump win.

President Obama retaliated in December by expelling 35 Russian diplomats who the White House said were spies, and seizing two Russian-owned waterfront compounds that it said were used for espionage.

Putin initially did not respond, but his order to reduce the U.S. staff last month followed a nearunanimous vote in the U.S. Congress to impose additional sanctions on Russia for its meddling in the election. President Trump later signed the bill into law.

Trump has repeatedly praised Putin and called for improving relations with Moscow.

But any attempts to do so have been hampered by the widening FBI investigation into whether his campaign cooperated with Russia’s attempt to influence the U.S. election.

The U.S. Embassy statement Monday cited the Russian order to cut staff for the suspension of visa processing.

“As a result of the Russian government’s personnel cap imposed on the U.S. mission, all nonimmigrant visa operations across Russia will be suspended beginning Aug. 23, 2017,” the embassy said on its website.

The move will affect Russians applying for tourist, business and other kinds of nonimmigrant visas to the United States.

The U.S. mission in Russia issued 182,958 visas in 2016, the State Department said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow would respond after a closer examination of the U.S. visa announcement.

He cautioned against a response that would similarly reduce American applications for Russian visas, saying that the Russian response would not be intended to punish U.S. citizens.

“If someone hoped that in this case a bad example would be contagious, then he miscalculated,” Lavrov said at a news conference Monday.

In Russia’s upper house of parliament, Andrei Klimov, the deputy head of the Committee on International Affairs, suggested that Russia should respond by reducing the number of visas issued to U.S. citizens.

“The legitimate rights of our citizens must be defended, so if there are any infringements on our citizens, then mirror measures should also be introduced against the citizens of the United States,” said Klimov, according to Interfax, a Russian news agency.

Klimov’s counterpart in Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, blamed the United States for the nosedive in relations.

“It always comes from the American side,” Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the State Duma’s international affairs committee, posted on the Russian social media site VKontakte. “We believe it is testament to Washington’s mood to further accelerate the deterioration of relations with Moscow.”