Russia sends diplomats 23 countries

Moscow announced the introduction of mirror retaliatory measures against 23 countries that expelled Russian diplomats because of the Skripal case.

“On March 30, the heads of the diplomatic missions of Australia, Albania, Germany, Denmark, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Canada, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Ukraine, Finland, France, Croatia were summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry. Czech Republic, Sweden, Estonia,” reports “Interfax"with reference to a statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry.

“They were handed notes of protest and stated that in response to the unfounded demands of these states for the expulsion of Russian diplomatic employees on the basis of unsubstantiated accusations by Great Britain against Russia because of the “Skripal case,” the Russian side announces “persona non grata“The corresponding number of employees of the diplomatic institutions of these countries in the Russian Federation,” reports the Russian Foreign Ministry.

As the statement emphasizes, “taking into account the fact that at the last moment Belgium, Hungary, Georgia and Montenegro decided to join the listed countries, Russia reserves the right to take retaliatory steps against these states.”

Earlier on Friday, the foreign affairs agencies of Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, Italy, Poland and the Czech Republic reported on the expulsion of their diplomats from Russia.

It also became known that Russia, in response to US actions in the “Skripal case” withdraws consent the work of the consulate general in St. Petersburg and sends 60 American diplomats, said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

How and where to get a US visa now

Sign up for filing documents for a US visa can be in other cities - Moscow, Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok.

You can also apply for a visa at US consulates and offices around the world. Enough when filling DS-160 Forms specify the country in which you plan to submit documents. Online travel.state.gov You can check the time of manufacture of a visa in the United States in a particular city. Russians recently began to travel for a visa to the former Soviet republics, where interviews are conducted in Russian, and EU countries, where queues are smaller (most residents of these countries do not need to issue a tourist visa in the United States).

The best options for Russians at the cost of flight and accommodation: Riga, Warsaw and Tbilisi.

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Recall, 26 March, it became known that the US government made a decision send Russian diplomats from 60and also to close the Russian consulate in Seattle. Such a decision on the consulate was made due to its territorial proximity to the military base of submarines, the plant of the corporation Boeing in Seattle, Wash., and in response to Russia's use of military-type chemical weapons in Britain.

The former GRU officer Sergey Skripal and his daughter Julia were found unconscious on a bench in Salisbury March 4. They were taken to the hospital in critical condition, they are still in a coma, doctors estimate their condition as consistently severe. The police found that they were poisoned by a nerve agent. About 20 people were poisoned, including the policeman who first visited the scene and the house of Skripal. On the fact of poisoning a case of attempted murder.

In Russia, Skripal in 2006 year was convicted of espionage in favor of British intelligence MI6. In 2010, he was exchanged for Russian intelligence agents uncovered in the United States.

Mutual expulsion from the countries of American and Russian diplomats began on December 29 2016 of the year, when 44 of US President Barack Obama signed a decree obliging Russian diplomats 35 to leave America. This document also closed their colleagues with access to two real estate properties in the states of New York and Maryland, which, according to American intelligence, were used by Russians for espionage.

In response, Russia banned the US Embassy from using a summer cottage in Serebryany Bor and storage facilities on Dorozhnaya Street in the south of Moscow. Russian authorities also expressed the need reducing the American embassy to xnumx people, to equalize their number with the number of employees in the Russian diplomatic mission in the United States.

In response to this, the US Embassy in Russia suspended the issuance of non-immigrant visas August 23 to September 1 2017. The issuance of renewed 1 September, but only in Moscow (before a visa could also be obtained in the consulate general in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok).

In addition, in response The United States decided to close the Russian Consulate General in San Francisco and some sales offices in Washington and New York.

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