Ambassador Antonov: US wants Russian diplomats to 'hide behind embassy walls'
Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov also said that the Americans are trying to make Russian diplomats "hide behind embassy walls" but that will not happen.
According to RT news agency, Russian Ambassador to Washington, Mr. Anatoly Antonov said that the US government is preparing to close both offices of the Russian visa center in the country and strip Russian diplomats of tax exemption.
Russian Visa Application Centers operate in Washington and New York and are responsible for assisting those who want to apply for a permit to visit Russia in preparing the necessary documents and submitting them to the Russian consulate.
According to RT, Mr. Antonov told journalists on June 22: "The Americans have informed us that the visa center is about to close."
He stressed that Washington's move creates "a serious additional burden for us given the fact that our consulates general offices in Houston and New York are already struggling" due to the expulsions of Russian diplomats from the US.
Another “petty, annoying attack” by Washington, the ambassador said, was the decision to strip Russian embassy staff of their duty-free cards. Such cards, he explained, are a standard practice, given to diplomats in all countries.
Mr. Antonov said that the US officials did not give any reasons for their actions. As for Moscow's possible reaction, the Russian ambassador asserted that, "there is no need to make any rash moves. We need to consider what the specific consequences of what we will have to do will be."
According to the ambassador, the Americans “are trying to break Russia, trying to change Russia's foreign policy, trying to force our diplomats to hide behind the walls of the embassy, to stop communicating and working.”
“This will not happen. Until the last diplomat, while we are still here, we will continue to carry out our duties,” he affirmed.
Relations between Moscow and Washington have deteriorated over the past decade, with former US President Barack Obama's administration closing several Russian consulates after accusing Moscow of meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Diplomatic tensions have escalated since Moscow launched its military operation in Ukraine in February 2022, triggering a wave of Western sanctions and several tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats from both countries.
Last month, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov warned that Moscow could downgrade diplomatic relations with Washington if the West “continues its escalatory path” in supporting Ukraine or takes hostile economic steps.
