Russia tells its citizens: avoid travel to the West

Russia said on Wednesday that relations with Washington were so confrontational that Russian citizens should not visit the United States, Canada and some EU countries in coming weeks because they risked being "hunted" down by U.S. authorities.

Russian and U.S. diplomats say the relationship is worse than at any time since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when the two Cold War superpowers came closest to intentional nuclear war, due to a confrontation over the Ukraine war.

"In the context of the increasing confrontation in Russian-American relations, which are teetering on the verge of rupture due to the fault of Washington, trips to the United States of America privately or out of official necessity are fraught with serious risks," Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, told a news briefing.