Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said Russia won’t retaliate against the U.S. Embassy’s restrictions on visas for Russian citizens, saying that would be tantamount to “genocide.”
Speaking to the opposition-leaning Dozhd television channel, Zakharova said Russia was preparing measures in response to fresh U.S. sanctions against Russia, signed into law by President Donald Trump in early August.
“When it comes to [U.S. sanctions] Russia is preparing a response, as deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has said,” Zakharova told interviewer Anton Zhelnov. “We are forced to respond.”
But no action would be taken in answer to the U.S. Embassy’s announcement it would limit the processing of non-immigrant visas in Russia earlier this month, which Zakharova described as “the horror that the Americans have created.”