LONDON, July 30. /TASS/. Russian embassy in Britain suspects the British authorities of contriving difficulties for the Russian diplomats’ normal work, a high-ranking source at the embassy told TASS on Thursday.
"One gets an impression the British side is concentrating on how to complicate our work here in violation of its obligations under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations," the diplomat said.
"In part, it misuses the difference in the practice of appointing staff members to the official missions - the embassies and consulates," he said. "London - and not only the Foreign Office but also the Home Office - procrastinates with the issuance of visas to newly appointed staff members for five to six months."
The diplomat said the situation embraces the staff of all levels. As a result, the list of Russian diplomats awaiting visas is three times longer than the list of British diplomats awaiting Russian visas.
"Along with it, the British issue the visas in the amounts that meet their calculus in terms of assuring visas for their own personnel and they don’t wait for too long," the diplomat said.
In the aftermath of London’s malintent, Moscow has to prolong the tours of duty of the active diplomats or to send them back home without replacement.
"All of this looks pretty serious and prompts to look for ways of eliminating the visa asymmetries with the Britons and the latter might mean sensitive tit-for-tat measures in the fields where we would benefit from the principle of reciprocity," the diplomat said.
"This leads up to a conclusion the British side isn’t interested in the maintenance of normal diplomatic relations with Russia," the diplomat said.
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