Moscow has to react
to unfriendly moves, the Russian diplomat stressed.
SAMARA, June 20.
/TASS/. Moscow will continue retaliating to unfriendly actions by the US if its
administraiton takes new steps to further escalate the situation, Foreign
Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters on Wednesday.
"We repeatedly
hear complaints from American over the shortage of [diplomatic] personnel. This
is their explanation to the substantially growing difficulties in obtaining
American visas in Russia," Zakharova said, adding that people have to wait
nine months for a visa interview. "It was the US decision to expose
exactly the consular section, and this choice was obviously intentional to
create an atmosphere of discontent, including among the Russian
nationals," the spokeswoman added.
"We had to
retaliate with tit-for-tat measures to a new unfounded decision by the American
authorities of March 26, 2018 - an expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats (over the
Salisbury poisoning). This is how things will also be in the future - the
Russian leadership has repeatedly said this - in case of Washington’s new
escalation in relations," she stressed.
"This is not our
choice. Unfortunately, we have to react to unfriendly moves," the diplomat
added. "We, for our part, are ready to discuss with Americans the issues
of mutual concern as a whole, we have repeatedly urged them to this,"
Zakharova added.
She reiterated that
on December 29, 2016, the US Department of State notified Russia of its
decision to declare 35 Russian diplomats personae non grata without giving any
reasons. "Despite the generally accepted in these cases action on the
principle of full reciprocity, the Russian side refrained from responding for
seven months, though we were not even allowed to fill in the vacancies,"
she said.
"Only after the
US Congress passed a law on July 27, 2017, officially declaring Russia an
enemy, we had to equal the numbers of diplomatic personnel, however giving the
US side advantages," she said. Russia included the staff at its mission in
the UN, though it has nothing to do with bilateral relations.
On March 4, former
Russian intelligence officer convicted for spying for the United Kingdom,
Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were allegedly poisoned with a
nerve agent, according to British investigators. Later, London stated that this
agent was designed in Russia and blamed Moscow for being behind the incident
based on this assumption. The Russian side refuted all accusations, saying that
neither the Soviet Union nor Russia had any programs for developing this agent.
In late March, the US
declared it was expelling 48 Russian diplomats and another twelve diplomats of
Russia’s permanent mission at the UN office in New York over the poisoning of
Skripal in Britain.
Source: ITAR-TASS
21-06-2018
