Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has accused the U.S. of turning “a technical procedure that’s banal in the 21st century into a real hell – at the heart of which is mockery on the verge of sadism.” Sputnik reports that she was responding to the State Department listing any Russian citizen applying for a visa as a “homeless nationality.”
“For many years, U.S. diplomats have worked to destroy a system rendering consular services in Russia,” Zakharova said. “They closed down consulates, reduced the number of consular staff, experimented with how our symmetrical response differs from a mirror response. Can it really be that among the apologists of this dirty strategy no one has thought about the fact that they are destroying their own ideals of freedom?”
The other countries’ citizens listed by the U.S. as requiring the “homeless nationality” status include Cubans, Eritreans, Iranians, Libyans, Somalis, South Sudanese, Syrians, Venezuelans, and Yemenis. Sputnik reports that citizens of these nations have their immigrant visa applications processed at U.S. embassies and diplomatic facilities in other countries – with Warsaw, Poland listed in Russia’s case.
