-Russia-U.S. showdown continues
The announcement of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to suspend visa processing was one of the most significant events last week.
According the announcement, due to Russia鈥檚 request to reduce U.S. embassy staff to 455, the U.S. embassy stopped processing visas in Russia. While the U.S. Embassy in Moscow will continue its operations again on Sep. 1, the operations in Russian consulates are suspended indefinitely.
Commenting on the decision, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that they would not respond to this decision through U.S. citizens, meaning that Russia will not take a reciprocal decision at its embassies in the U.S.
Meanwhile, according to Russian Foreign Ministry sources who spoke to Russian daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Russia is preparing to retaliate against the U.S.
While stopping the purchase of some U.S. medicine or decreasing Russian diplomats in U.S. are on the table, the sources underline that these types of measures would negatively affect Russians. Therefore, the most probable retaliation is to limit the activities of various U.S. organizations in Russia.
After the recent developments, it is becoming clearer that the tension between Russia and U.S. is nowhere close to cooling off.
-Russia pays all of its Soviet Union debt
Russia paid $125 million to Bosnia and Herzegovina last week, which means that Russia has paid all of its debt from the Soviet Union.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia took on responsibility of all the debts of the union, which amounted to $66 billion.
Russia paid $60 billion to 19 countries, including the U.S. and the U.K. between 2000-2010. The remaining debt to Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia and Macedonia was paid between 2011-2016.聽