US is doing everything to reduce diplomatic presence: Russian envoy

WASHINGTON DC (TASS): The American administration is now doing everything to shrink the Russian diplomatic presence in the United States. This was announced to journalists on Wednesday by Russian Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov.
“Today, the Americans are doing everything to shrink the Russian diplomatic presence in the United States of America. We have open consulates general in Houston and New York, but in reality they cannot work, there are no diplomats, there are no employees,” he stressed.
The head of the diplomatic mission noted that “the consular department of the embassy is forced to take on most of the work in order to provide consular services to Russian citizens and foreigners.” Antonov added that “the first time the Americans expelled 24 diplomats,” the State Department issued visas to only half of those who were supposed to replace them.
The State Department has told Russian diplomats that the Russian ambassador will be forced to leave the US by April if Moscow fails to comply with a number of Washington’s conditions for issuing visas to the US ambassador’s guards in Russia, Antonov said.
“There is no progress in terms of diplomatic property, or the issuance of visas, or the development of relations. Therefore, strictly speaking, I see only a downward trend. Moreover, I will tell you that at the last meetings at the State Department, our employees were clearly told, that the Russian ambassador will be forced to leave the United States of America by April if we do not fulfill a number of conditions of the United States of America to provide visas to the guards of the American ambassador in Moscow,” the ambassador said.
“We went to the State Department and we go out regularly once every two weeks. More than 400 or 500 notes have already been sent to the State Department with a request to give them the opportunity to visit our facilities. All promises remain in words, nothing concrete is being done. The Americans are not ready to fulfill even this the minimum request of the Russian side in order to visit the seized Russian diplomatic property,” he added.
Antonov stressed: “Everything that has been happening in recent months in this direction only indicates a toughening of the line of the United States of America regarding our presence.”
In response to the anti-Russian sanctions anno-unced by Washington and another expulsion of diplomats, Moscow imposed restrictions on the employment of citizens of the Rus-sian Federation and other countries by the American diplomatic mission.
The US Embassy announced that it will reduce the number of consular services provided from May 12, including suspending the processing of documents for visas that are not intended for diplomatic travel. The issuance of visas to diplomats has also slowed significantly. Since August 1, the American embassy in Moscow has continued to work in the minimum staff for five years: its staff was completed by 120 employees. At the same time, the Russian Foreign Ministry pointed out that no one is preventing the American embassy from filling the quota of 455 diplomats at the expense of employees from the United States.
Departure from the USA
Another group of employees of the Russian embassy, ??along with family members, leaves the United States on Wednesday due to the restriction by the American side of the terms of business trips for representatives of the Russian diplomatic mission for three years.
“Today is a very bitter event at our embassy. Our comrades were forced, at the request of the Americans, to leave earlier than the period for which they came here. Back in September, we were invited to the State Department and given a list of 55 people. leave and are leaving by January 30, and 28 people are leaving by June 30. It was not said that they were being deported <…> but it was said that if these people did not leave, then the next day [after the established term] they lose their diplomatic privileges and can be arrested,” Antonov said.
He stressed that under these conditions, the Rus-sian side cannot consider the actions of the United St-ates in any other way than “expulsion <…>, an unfrie-ndly, hostile step against” the Russian Federation.
“The first expulsion was – 24 people <…> last September. They arrived [instead of them] <…> ten people. Half. <…> Because they (the US authorities – approx. TASS) do not give visas,” the Russian ambassador added, answering the question of whether it is possible to make up for such personnel losses.
As Antonov noted, “nothing has been done, nothing is happening” in the direction of normalizing the work of diplomatic missions. “In total <…> during my stay here <…> more than 120 diplomats and employees [of the embassy] were expelled from the United States. And together with their families, this is about 300 people. This is four years. that I don’t see this negative trend <…> would somehow change its direction,” the Russian ambassador stressed.
In 2017, as part of anti-Russian sanctions, the US authorities closed the Consulate General of the Russian Federation in San Francisco, the trade mission in Washington (both state-owned) and its branch in New York (leased premises). The Russian Federation regarded the seizure of diplomatic property as an openly hostile act and called on the United States to immediately return these objects. In 2018, Washington annou-nced the closure of the Consulate General of the Russian Federation (leased premises) in Seattle, as well as the residence of the Consul General (diplomatic property).
At the end of November last year, the ambassador reported that 27 Russian diplomats with their families would be forced to leave the United States on January 30, and the same number of employees of the Russian diplomatic mission would leave the country on June 30 next year.