SAN FRANCISCO, USA, Nov 5 USA themselves do not take the steps necessary to improve the work of the embassy in Moscow, and the situation in the Russian diplomatic mission in Washington is not getting better, said Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov.
«They do not want to increase their staff today, saying, maybe the Russians will falter and allow hiring local staff, but then we won’t get the number of visas that we need. It’s just that they don’t give us a single visa,” Antonov told reporters in response to a question about the prospects for further reducing the number of Russian diplomats in the USA.
«People leave, business trips end, and we are not given visas. Americans agree to our employees coming here only if they receive visas for themselves. We have set a figure: 455 people in bilateral missions. But the Americans of this do not do and do not want to (increase the number of diplo mats to the agreed level — ed.). Because they had a great life when a thousand local staff worked for the interests of the United States, they did not need such a number. We have a different system, different security requirements,» he added.
Antonov said that the Russian Federation proposed to define categories of employees in the missions who would be exempted from interconnections, for example, embassy doctors and teachers, but the lack of contacts with the US «There is no dialogue,» the ambassador stated.
«We are ready to approach the issue of zeroing all restrictions, but we must start looking globally. How many sanctions have been imposed on Russia. Moreover, they impose sanctions, from which they themselves suffer, and then ask the Foreign Ministry to lift the restrictions,» he said.