YAROSLAVL, December 3. / TASS /. The US and Russia are closely working on mitigating the problem of issuing American visas to Russians, US Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan told TASS on Friday at the 11th Russian-American Bridge Across the Ocean Festival.

"We are working very hard on this issue," the US envoy said. "It is in our interests, both of the US government and people, that Russians whether from Yaroslavl, Yekaterinburg or Moscow traveled to the US," Sullivan noted.

The diplomat also mentioned that business leaders from the US and Russia were very concerned about this issue.

On November 18, Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov said that at the consultations in Vienna, Moscow and Washington addressed a wide range of issues regarding the work of diplomatic missions, including visa issues and the problems of the seized diplomatic property. Earlier, some diplomatic sources told TASS that the talks between Russia and the US on bilateral issues kicked off in Vienna on November 17 behind closed doors. The Russian delegation was headed by Director of the North American Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry Alexander Darchiev and the US delegation was led by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Christopher Robinson.