The United States and Russia publicly argued Monday, August 2 about the staffing of their respective embassies, signaling the lack of progress on this sensitive subject despite their presidential summit and the start of a "
strategic dialogue
" supposed to stabilize stormy relations.
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In an interview with the American newspaper
The National Interest
, the Russian ambassador in Washington, Anatoly Antonov, deplored the “
expulsions
” of Russian diplomats.
He accused the United States of being "
persistent and creative
" in limiting the duration of visas reserved for Russian diplomats to three years - shorter than for others, according to him.
"
We have received a list of 24 diplomats who must leave the country before September 3,
" he explained, assuring that almost all of them would not be replaced "
because Washington has abruptly tightened the screw of procedures for issuing visas
”.
"
Inaccurate
"
description
of the situation
US State Department spokesman Ned Price said it was an "
inaccurate
"
description
of the situation.
According to him, the Russians knew that these visas would expire after three years and were free to apply for their renewal.
He, in return, again accused Moscow of forcing the United States to fire Russian employees from their diplomatic missions in Russia, by prohibiting embassies from employing local or third country personnel.
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"
It is unfortunate because these measures have a negative impact on the operations of the American mission in Russia, potentially on the security of our personnel and on our ability to have diplomatic exchanges with the Russian government
," Ned Price told the press. hurry. "
We reserve the right to take appropriate measures in response to Russia's measures
," he added, while ensuring that the expiration of visas denounced by the Russian ambassador had no connection with this.
For several years, the two rival powers have on several occasions carried out reciprocal expulsions of diplomats, sometimes forcing the missions of the two countries to work in a situation of minimum service. Against the backdrop of maximum tensions, US President Joe Biden met his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Geneva in June. They decided to hold a strategic dialogue between the two rival countries, which opened last week, also in the Swiss city.
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