Authorities in the United States have decided to close a Russian visa center with branches in Washington and New York.
Announcing the decision, Russian Ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, said that the diplomatic mission received a notification in this regard on June 21, VisaGuide.World reports.
Now, Russian diplomats and consuls will have an additional burden on their shoulders. And I want to say right away that we will continue to work.
The Ambassador vowed to take measures to ensure that Russian citizens continue to receive all the necessary legal and consular support.
Besides, Antonov also said that the US had taken away cards from Russian diplomats, which permitted them to avoid paying taxes to the local budget.
Calling the new changes “a petty, nasty step”, the ambassador said that US authorities didn’t provide any reason behind the decision.
Russia Says It Will Respond Adequately if US Closes Visa Centers
Soon after the announcement, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that Russia would undertake relevant, responsive measures if the US closed the Russian visa centers in Washington and New York.
In case such measures are implemented, the Russian side will give an adequate response.
Talking about retaliatory measures, Ambassador Antonov said, “today, we should not be cutting ourselves off from the shoulder”.
We need to think about it, we need to see what the specific consequences will be, what we need to do.
Back in 2022, authorities in the US closed the accounts of diplomatic missions with Bank of America. In December last year, the consular section of the embassy in Washington, D.C, fired a total of 40 percent of its staff.
Antonov said that there is a desire to create difficulties every day, stressing that the US is attempting to change Russia’s foreign policy and oblige diplomats to halt their work. He vowed that such a thing would not happen.
Similar steps to those introduced by authorities in the US have also been discussed by authorities in the European Union countries. However, such a proposal was not backed by authorities in Germany and Austria after both these two countries feared that the Kremlin would take retaliatory measures or choose a more radical response.
Authorities in these two countries argued that there is no effective way to track the movement of Russian diplomats traveling by car or train across the EU Member States.