Imagine being a diplomat who has been expelled from the country to which you’re accredited, but, then not being able to go home, because the host country has denied you the means to actually travel there. According to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, this is exactly what’s happening to Russian diplomats whom the State Department has ordered out of the US. She said in a statement yesterday that the U.S. State Department has denied permission for the flight of a Russian state aircraft to the U.S. to pick up Russian diplomats and their families ordered to leave the U.S.
“The US is continuing to systematically damage bilateral relations, which are already at their lowest ebb. Washington has distinguished itself in taking yet another hostile move against our country, by not granting permission for a special flight of Russian state aircraft to the United States, which was supposed to carry home employees of Russian foreign institutions and their families,” Zakharova said in a statement, reported TASS.
“The Joe Biden administration has preferred to totally ignore the fact that it is actually a humanitarian action, as our plane was supposed to fly in to take those of our colleagues whom the Department of State had earlier issued an ultimatum, ordering them to leave the United States by the end of this month,” Zakharova added.
“As we have warned before, once a Russian special flight is denied entry, countermeasures, including asymmetrical ones, will inevitably follow, of which we will notify through diplomatic channels in accordance with the established procedure,” the statement says.
