U.S. Embassy in Moscow may completely stop working in 2022
An American official said that the US Embassy in Moscow could stop performing most of its functions as early as next year. This will not happen only if Russia and the United States can reach an agreement to increase the number of visas for diplomats. The edition told in more detail Voice of America.
At the same time, quite recently, the United States stopped issuing visas in Moscow. Now Russian citizens are considered a "homeless nation" and are forced to apply to the US Embassy in Warsaw.
“We need to make progress soon,” said a State Department official. "We will not face the situation next month, but sometime next year, when it will be difficult for us to do anything other than look after the embassy itself."
“We will do everything to keep the embassy open,” he said, and noted that other functions of the embassy, such as sending diplomatic mails, would be difficult without additional personnel.
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The embassy now lacks staff to even perform basic functions such as opening and closing embassy gates, securing phone calls and servicing elevators.
Since August 1, the embassy has been banned from hiring Russians or third-country nationals, which has led to the firing of more than 200 mission officers from among local residents throughout Russia.
The United States complains about non-compliance with the principle of reciprocity in this regard: Moscow counts local employees in the total number of American diplomats, while Washington counts only Russian citizens in similar calculations.
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About 120 people work in American missions in Russia, which is much less than in 2017 (1200), while Russian missions in the United States have about 230 people, not counting the personnel of the Russian mission to the UN in New York.
"They have a much larger presence here in the US than we do in Russia," said a State Department official.
U.S.-Russian relations have deteriorated in many ways, including accusations of Moscow meddling in U.S. elections, although the presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin agreed at the summit in Geneva work towards a more stable relationship in June.
As ForumDaily wrote earlier:
- This spring on April 23 Putin signed a decree according to which the embassies of states "committing unfriendly actions" against Russia will be limited in the right to hire Russian citizens.
- The decree was issued against the backdrop of deteriorating relations between Russia and the United States and a number of European countries, as well as a diplomatic conflict with the Czech Republic. whose authorities suspected Russia of involvement in the explosions of ammunition depots in 2014 and announced the expulsion of Russian diplomats. In response, Moscow also expelled employees of the Czech embassy.
- In April, the President of the United States Joe Biden imposed new sanctions against Russia stating that it is a response to cyberattacks and attempts to interfere in the 2020 presidential election.
- Thereafter Washington and Moscow exchanged expelled diplomats.
- In addition, the Russian Foreign Ministry recommended that US Ambassador John Sullivan leave for Washington "for consultations." Sullivan initially refused to leave Russia, but on April 22 it became known that he flew to the USA.
- Earlier Russia closed the US Consulate in Vladivostok, and the diplomatic mission in Yekaterinburg stopped serving US citizens and stopped issuing visas. This means that except at the Moscow Embassy, Russian citizens had nowhere else to obtain a visa to enter the United States, and United States citizens had nowhere else to turn for help.
- And on April 30 it became known that USA stopped issuing visas in Moscow, after which Russians have nowhere else to get visas. The embassy tried several times to resume work, but due to the fact that the United States 182 employees of the embassies in Russia had to be fired, there were large delays in processing applications.
- 23 October Russia joins the list of "homeless nations", and in Moscow almost immediately expressed their indignation at such a decision.
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