Moscow summons US diplomat in protest over claims of visa denial for school employees

18 Jul, 2019 15:59 / Updated 5 years ago

The Russian Foreign Ministry on Thursday summoned the minister-counselor of the US Embassy in Moscow Tim Richardson amid controversy over alleged visa denial to employees of the Anglo-American School.

Earlier, US Ambassador to Moscow Jon Huntsman said that Russia had refused to issue visas for 30 new teachers at the Anglo-American School. The Russian ministry said that the school operates as a commercial enterprise and is not located on the territory of the American Embassy.

It said the US is demanding that teachers be accredited as administrative and technical staff of the diplomatic mission, while visas are not issued for the same category of personnel of the Russian missions.

The US state institutions “are likely to have deliberately created this deadlock to contrive a new scandal,” the Russian ministry said. It added that Moscow “has many times reached out to Washington with proposals to settle the visa issues.”