A group of American senators proposing to expel 300 Russian diplomats from the country if Moscow refuses to expand the staff of the US Embassy, ​​by their actions can only achieve the closure of American foreign missions in the Russian Federation.

This is how the Russian Foreign Ministry commented on this initiative of the congressmen.

The Foreign Ministry also drew attention to the fact that Washington does not have so many employees of the Russian diplomatic mission.

"Or did the congressmen, not possessing the appropriate knowledge in international relations, also counted Russian diplomatic staff working in the permanent mission to the UN?"

- quoted by TASS as a message from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The press service of the ministry stressed that in the current situation "something else is important."

“Whoever proposes such steps, apparently, is seeking the closure of American missions abroad in Russia.

They must realize that the responsibility for this will lie with them, ”the Foreign Ministry concluded.

Earlier, a group of 17 senators, representing both the Republican and Democratic parties, appealed to President Joe Biden to take "immediate action" to increase the number of US diplomatic staff in Moscow.

According to the congressmen, if the Russian authorities do not agree to fulfill this condition, 300 Russian diplomats should be expelled from the United States.

The letter was published by Republican Marco Rubio.

Mark Warner, Jim Riesch and Robert Menendez are also co-sponsors of the initiative.

According to the congressmen, “the disproportionality of diplomatic representation is unacceptable,” therefore Moscow “must issue enough visas” to approach parity between the number of American diplomats working in the Russian Federation and the number of Russian diplomats working in the United States.

Senators claim that more than 400 Russian diplomats are now "scattered" across the United States, while the US diplomatic presence in Russia is limited to "about 100 American citizens."

Recall that in April 2021, Joe Biden signed a decree on new sanctions against Russia.

The restrictive measures affected 32 Russian individuals and legal entities, as well as six technology companies.

Soon, the Russian Foreign Ministry published a list of responses to Washington's actions.

Among the countermeasures was the expulsion of US diplomatic officials "in an amount commensurate with the action carried out by the American authorities against Russian diplomats."

Along with this, the practice of using the US Embassy "short-term seconded by the State Department to ensure the functioning of diplomatic missions" was limited.

The issuance of visas to them was reduced to the minimum value - ten people a year.

Among other things, it was decided to completely stop the practice of hiring by US diplomatic missions administrative and technical workers from among Russians and citizens of third countries.

Another measure was the termination of the 1992 bilateral memorandum "On Understanding on the Open Land" - in connection with the systematic violations of the rules of travel in Russia by the employees of American diplomatic missions.

Also on russian.rt.com, Lavrov recalled Russia's readiness to respond to the US escalation

The US Embassy in Moscow later announced that it would suspend all non-diplomatic, nonimmigrant visa services from May 12.

Only those immigration applications related to vital emergencies will be considered, as well as applications that expire on the basis of the applicant's age.

In addition, the embassy said that due to retaliatory measures from Russia, they will have to reduce the provision of consular services by 75%, which makes it impossible to provide visa services.

In late August, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova commented on the fact that the US Embassy had practically stopped issuing visas to Russians, citing a "lack of staff."

According to her, this circumstance is "regrettable."

“The shooters are being transferred to the Russian authorities, which have banned the hiring of local personnel as consular assistants.

Such explanations, to put it mildly, are crafty and misleading, ”she said.

Zakharova also stressed that the Russian consular offices in the United States, which are "drained of personnel" due to the refusals of the US Department of State to issue visas to Russian diplomats, continue visa processing in full.

“The question is: where is the notorious American“ open society ”and why is it now so closed to Russians by the Washington“ visa palisade ”?” The diplomat added.