Washington, December 19 The U.S. media reported on the 18th that the U.S. State Department will close the Consulate General in Vladivostok, Russia, and suspend the work of the Consulate General in Yekaterinburg.
CNN quoted a spokesman for the U.S. State Department as saying on the same day that Secretary of State Pompeo made the above decision after discussions with John Sullivan, the U.S. Ambassador to Russia.
The spokesman said that the United States has no plan to take relevant actions against the Russian Consulate General in the United States.
The report said that the State Council had informed Congress of the plan on the 10th, saying that the plan was to meet the challenge of Russia’s restrictions on U.S. diplomatic personnel after 2017 and the shortage caused by the deadlock on diplomatic visa issues between the two sides.
After the implementation of the plan, 10 U.S. diplomats working in the two consulates general will be sent to the U.S. Embassy in Russia.
The press secretary of the Russian president told the media on the 14th that the functions of the consulate are consular and visa services, and these functions of the U.S. Consulate General in Russia have not been performed for a long time. Therefore, the closure of the Consulate General of the United States will not affect Russian-US relations.
According to reports, due to the impact of the coronavirus epidemic, the work of the Consulate General in Vladivostok has been suspended before, and the work of the Consulate General in Yekaterinburg has been reduced since March.
Relations between the United States and Russia have been tense in recent years, and the two countries have obvious differences on cybersecurity, energy security, arms control and regional hot spots.
