Washington brings the rules of work for diplomats in line with Russian ones, so Russians will have to leave the United States after three years of work, the US ambassador told RBC. The Russian Foreign Ministry compared this requirement with expulsion
Embassy of the Russian Federation in Washington
The United States follows the logic of Russia adhering to the principles of reciprocity in diplomatic relations, so there was a requirement for Russian diplomats to leave the territory of the United States after three years of work. This was stated by the American ambassador to Russia John Sullivan in an interview with RBC. He did not agree with his Russian counterpart Anatoly Antonov, who announced the “de facto expulsion” of diplomatic staff from the United States who had worked in the country for more than three years. The United States will have to leave 55 Russian diplomats at the end of January and the end of June next year.
Read the interview of US Ambassador John Sullivan on the RBC website on the morning of December 5.
“When an American diplomat comes to Russia, he receives a visa for three years and is allowed to enter the country and stay for three years, he also receives diplomatic accreditation and with this receives diplomatic status and immunity. In this sense, he cannot be subjected to criminal prosecution and so on. We also issued visas for Russian diplomats for three years, but when the visa expired, the immunity and privileges that the Russian diplomat received did not expire. They could stay with privileges and diplomatic immunity, as diplomats, they didn’t have to leave. To us, to ourRussian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, commenting on the planned departure of Russian diplomatic workers, promised that Moscow would respond in a mirror way: “An appropriate number of American personnel will leave our country. According to the same principle: those who “sit out” a three-year term”. Ryabkov also said that Moscow offers the United States to abandon this requirement.
In recent months, Deputy Minister Ryabkov has also reported on the Russian proposal to Washington to “reset” the situation with diplomats and start work “from scratch”. Commenting on this proposal in an interview with RBC, Ambassador Sullivan said that “it’s not so easy to say that we will lift all restrictions.” However, the head of the American diplomatic mission in Russia aims to work together andstabilization of diplomatic work. “I do not know exactly what limitations he had in mind. But let me say that we are committed to our work with the Russian government to stabilize diplomatic platforms and bring the American diplomatic presence here to parity with the Russian diplomatic presence in the United States, which significantly exceeds ours,” Sullivan said.
Mutual cuts and a ban on the American Embassy in Russia hiring local employees and employees from third countries have led to the fact that now the number of diplomatic staff at the US Embassy is at the level of 120-130 people, Sullivan cited.
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