The United States and Russia both said on Thursday that they had made progress toward normalising the work of their diplomatic missions, with the United States saying it was still concerned about a Russian policy prohibiting the employment of local staff.

A new round of talks between the US and Russia will take place in Istanbul on 10 April, with the parties focusing exclusively on the normalisation of their embassy operations. Source: European Pravda with reference to a briefing by US Department of State spokesperson Tammy Bruce Quote from Bruce: "These talks are solely focused on our embassy operations,