MOSCOW, December 9. /TASS/. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov on Thursday said the US State Department’s statements of progress in resolving visa issues with Russia are misleading.

The visa situation, on the contrary, is increasingly disturbing, he told reporters.

The minor issues that the countries were able to settle "don’t change the general picture that’s quite negative and increasingly alarming," he said. "It’s not the first day that the State Department deliberately - deliberately - misleads the public in Russia and the United States by pretending that there’s some serious progress," Ryabkov said.

Moscow and Washington have reached certain understanding only in some issues regarding diplomatic visas, otherwise the matter is completely gridlocked, he said. The key obstacle is a demand by the US that large groups of Russian diplomats leave the country, with the deadlines on January 30 and June 30, he said. Russia sought to cancel or suspend these demands on a reciprocal basis but to no avail, he said.

Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov on November 18 said that representatives of the two countries held consultations in Vienna to discuss the work of diplomatic missions including visas and seized property.

The ambassador said 27 Russian diplomats would be forced to leave the US in January and as many would leave in June. The move would separate their families, he said. The next round of talks on visa issues is scheduled for this month.