Travel barriers are the worst of new Cold War

Why is the US squandering its soft-power advantage on a tit-for-tat with Russia?

The latest loop in the escalation of US-Russia hostilities is probably the dumbest and the most damaging: The two countries are introducing de facto travel restrictions for each other’s citizens, choking off the friendliest, most human channel of communication between them. It’s the biggest step back into the Cold War era that the two governments have taken yet.

The State Department has stopped issuing visas in Yekaterinburg, Vladivostok and St Petersburg, a response to Russian demands for drastic cuts in US diplomatic mission based in the country. In 2016, those three posts combined issued 46,243 visas, about a third of the