Consul General of Russia in New York: “The introduction of sanctions against our diplomats will hit the Russians in the US”

Photo: Consulate General of Russia in New York

The US State Department promised before September 1 to announce new measures to increase sanctions against Russia. Expected that Washington will close one of the general consulates of Russia in America. They currently operate in New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Houston. Also discussed is the option of reducing the radius of free movement of Russian diplomats in the United States without prior notice to the American side.

Russian Consul General in New York Sergey Ovsyannikov in an interviewKomsomolskaya Pravda”Said that such decisions in the first place will hit the Russians applying to the consulate.

He did not rule out that the State Department could close the consulate in New York headed by him.

“If there is a sanction to close our consulate or to reduce the number of diplomats working there, then all this will first of all affect our compatriots: the process of issuing visas, passports, powers of attorney will become more complicated,” Ovsyannikov said.

He noted that at the moment in the United States there are restrictions on the free movement of Russian diplomats around the country - no more than 40 km within a radius of the city center where the diplomatic institution is located; if a diplomat wants to travel beyond this radius, he must notify the relevant authorities of the US State Department.

Now the question of reducing this radius by half is being discussed in Washington, which, according to Ovsyannikov, “will create great inconvenience.”

“If we reduce this radius by half, then difficulties will arise with meeting official delegations at airports. For now, all this is of a notification nature, but after September 1, permission from the American side for any trip will probably need to be requested several days in advance. Now imagine that in a neighboring city, a Russian citizen who, for example, ended up in a hospital needed urgent consular assistance: how quickly can we get there?” - the diplomat explained.

Ovsyannikov noted that it is very difficult to predict exactly what the new sanctions measures will be. According to him, even the State Department officials, who are awaiting the decision of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, do not know this.

The diplomat refused to give any predictions about the further development of US-Russian relations, but stressed that the United States should take the first step towards their improvement.

“Concerning the immediate prospects for US-Russian relations, I would prefer to refrain from making predictions. It seems that common sense will appear on the American side, and the Russophobia being whipped up in the United States will stop. It is the Americans who must realize the whole situation and begin to gradually win back,” Ovsyannikov said.

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