The State Duma said that the US’s unwillingness to issue visas to Russian officials indicates Washington’s unwillingness to conduct a dialogue with Moscow.
“Unfortunately, recently we often see that the USA is fencing itself off from Russia, not wanting to enter into a dialogue, they do not want to take into account our position on all pressing issues, including in the financial sphere,” a member of the State Duma’s Committee on International Affairs told RIA Novosti affairs of Anton Morozov.
Recall that earlier a visa to enter the United States was not issued by the delegation of the Federal Treasury, which was supposed to take part in a conference of the International Institute for the Regulation of the Audit Profession. In addition, they refused to enter Oleg Malginov, head of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s department for working with compatriots abroad. He planned to attend a youth forum in New York.
According to Morozov, the US visa policy makes this country unsuitable for international events.
“When some significant events are held there (in the USA. - RT ), it always poses a certain danger for unhindered access for all participants, therefore it is still better to use the sites of countries that are more tolerant in terms of admission of participants from other countries” , - the deputy explained.
“A blow to bilateral relations”
The Federation Council noted that Russia intends to respond to these unfriendly actions by the United States.
“Of course, this is another blow to our bilateral relations, which will not be without consequences ... In any case, the initiators of such reprisals in Russia just have nothing to do so far: sober up - we'll talk,” the head of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs told RIA Novosti affairs Konstantin Kosachev.
Yury Rogulev, director of the Franklin Roosevelt Foundation for US Studies at Moscow State University, explained to RT that this so-called “visa war” has been going on for several years. And the USA took the first step.
At the end of December 2016, Washington imposed another sanctions package due to alleged Russian interference in the US presidential election. 35 employees of the Russian diplomatic mission to the United States were expelled from the country, and the rest of the diplomats from the Russian Federation were denied access to the cottages of the Russian Permanent Mission to the states of New York and Maryland. According to the expert, Russia has introduced retaliatory measures, "leading to a common denominator, the number of Russian diplomats in the United States and American diplomats in Russia."
- © Lehtikuva / Heikki Saukkomaa via REUTERS
“After which, the Americans were very offended and this“ war ”began, which continues to this day. Regrettably, it can be stated that this, of course, causes severe damage to Russian-American relations. And this problem concerns not only members of the legislative assemblies, politicians or eminent athletes, but also ordinary citizens, ”said Rogulev.
Domestic explanation
It seems doubtful that the American embassy in Moscow had any objective reasons for not granting visas to officials. As the Russian Embassy in Washington noted, “excuses about the lack of consular staff in an attempt to justify the long deadlines for issuing visas to Russian citizens” are untrue. The Russian diplomatic mission said that they currently do not have a single visa request from the United States regarding American consular workers.
Professor of the Department of Comparative Political Science of the RUDN University, Yuri Pochta, believes that US foreign policy is now more determined by the internal situation in the country than by the real tasks of Washington in the international arena.
“Here we need to look for an internal political explanation. There is the so-called “deep state” - those officials who are not dependent on the change of presidents. And in this case, this "deep state" does not agree with the politics (US President. - RT ) of Donald Trump and sabotages it. It is entirely possible that this is simply an undermining of his position to show that he is not capable of pursuing an effective foreign policy, ”the expert explained in an interview with RT.
The same opinion was previously expressed by Konstantin Kosachev, pointing out that the visa scandal is growing against the backdrop of the impeachment launched against the current president. According to him, in the United States, many events are now taking place "against the background of the unfolding show with impeachment to Donald Trump."
Recall, on October 31, the US House of Representatives approved a resolution supporting the impeachment procedure. The official reason was the telephone conversation between the US President and his Ukrainian counterpart, Vladimir Zelensky.
Opponents of Trump believe that the US president allegedly put pressure on his Ukrainian counterpart to launch an investigation into Hunter Biden, the son of Trump's potential rival in the 2020 elections, Joe Biden.
“Although the USA itself is full of passion - there is some new evidence, someone is changing the testimony, in short, everything is according to the laws of Hollywood - outside America, it seems to me that few people follow this epic in detail, since what is happening more and more resembles some small-town squabbles, not a superpower policy. And suddenly the ban on entry to the Russian treasury employees came from these squabbles - from the same petty and senseless series, ”Kosachev emphasized.
Meanwhile, the international community also drew attention to the unfriendly steps of the United States in the visa issue. So, in mid-October, an official spokesman for the UN Secretary General, Stefan Dujarrick, said that the situation with Washington not issuing visas to diplomats directly affects the ability of the UN institutions to function in New York, bearing in mind the non-issuance of US visas to 18 Russian diplomats to participate in the UN General Assembly.