Ambassador Zoff: U.S. Embassy hiring freeze in Russia – Politics Abroad

As of August 1, Russians who wish to live, travel or work in the United States can no longer apply for visas at the US Embassy in Moscow.

▶ Reason: Russia banned the US Embassy from hiring foreign nationals in May – forcing the embassy to cut 75 percent of its staff. that you mentioned “Moscow Times”.

The US Embassy in Moscow is the last diplomatic mission in Russia. The US Consulate in Saint Petersburg closed in 2018, and operations at consulates in Vladivostok and Yekaterinburg were scaled back earlier this year.

Means: Russians can no longer apply for visas to travel to the United States from their homeland. You only have the option to submit visa applications to US embassies in third countries.

In addition, the Embassy will no longer provide routine passport services, consular reports on births abroad, and documentation services for US citizens in Russia.

“After August 1, we’ll have very few staff, which is why we won’t be able to provide the consular services that, I know, Americans and Russians need so much,” said US diplomat John Sullivan.

“Not only is this an obstacle to the US-Russia relationship, but it also has serious personal implications for families and business impacts for businesses — both in the United States and in Russia,” Sullivan continued.

Russia’s ban on hiring foreign staff to US diplomatic missions came amid a round of tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions — relations between Moscow and Washington this spring over the conflict in eastern Ukraine and the jailing of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, among others (45) breaking.

US President Joe Biden (78) and Russian President Vladimir Putin (68) agreed at their June 16 summit in Geneva to restore their ambassadors to their posts. Sullivan and his Russian counterpart, Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov, only returned to Moscow and Washington last week.