The United States Embassy in Moscow announced on Friday that it would temporarily resume its consular services to the Americans after Russia decided to postpone the drastic reduction in the staff of the American diplomatic representation.
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The announcement comes a few days before the first meeting of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Washington and Moscow are also working on a Joe Biden-Vladimir Putin summit in June.
In response to US sanctions, Moscow had banned the embassy in Russia from employing non-US nationals, which forced the embassy to separate from all of its local staff, reducing "
its workforce. 'work of 75%
', and led it to close on May 12 most of its consular service. However on Friday, the American representation indicated that the Russian government had postponed the measure, allowing the consulate to "
resume routine services to American nationals
" until July 16, such as the issuance of passports or the establishment of birth certificate.
US-Russian relations have continued to deteriorate amid accusations by Washington of interference in the 2020 US presidential election, espionage and cyber attacks.
Joe Biden's administration in April ordered new sanctions against Russian-linked entities, the expulsion of ten diplomats and a ban on US banks from directly buying Russian-issued debt.
Moscow responded by expelling ten US diplomats, banning top US officials from its territory and banning US representations from employing foreign nationals.
Despite these exchanges of punitive measures, the two capitals want to organize a summit of their leaders in a third country in June 2021.