US scales back visa services in Russia as Putin cuts its staff

The United States said yesterday it was scaling back its visa services in Russia after Moscow ordered it to sharply cut its diplomatic staff in retaliation over new US sanctions.

President Vladimir Putin, reacting to new sanctions imposed by the US Congress which President Donald Trump reluctantly signed into law, last month ordered Washington to cut diplomatic and technical staff in Russia by 755 people, or by about 60 percent, by Sept 1.

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The US embassy in Russia said yesterday the move had forced it to rethink its visa operations and that it was suspending all non-immigrant visa operations across Russia on Aug 23.

It said services would be resumed on Sept 1, but would be offered "on a greatly reduced scale." It would be cancelling an unspecified number of scheduled appointments and asking applicants to reschedule, it said in a statement.