U.S. Accuses Russia Of Rejecting Diplomatic School Teachers’ Visa Application

The U.S. on Wednesday accused Russia of denying visas for teachers at a school for diplomats’ children in Moscow, in the latest fray in relations between the countries.

“Children should not be used as pawns in diplomatic disputes,” U.S. Ambassador, Jon Huntsman, said in a statement.

The Anglo-American School is a combined venture of the U.S., British and Canadian embassies, with about 1,100 students from dozens of countries, including Russia.

“The Russian government has made the unfortunate decision not to issue ‎visas to the incoming teachers expected to arrive next month to start the school year at the Anglo-American School of Moscow,” Huntsman said.

The school’s St Petersburg affiliate was forced to close in 2018 amid a diplomatic spat over the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal, and his daughter, Yulia in England.

Facing the possibility of reduced staff, the Moscow school may need to consider “possible disenrollment of some new and returning students,” the U.S. ambassador said.

U.S.-Russian relations plummeted to their lowest point since the Cold War five years ago when Russia annexed neighbouring Ukraine’s Crimea region as Ukraine embarked on strengthening its integration with the West.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry accused the U.S. of starting the dispute over the diplomatic teaching staff in Moscow by not issuing visas to analogous staff at Russian diplomatic institutions in the U.S.

Such Moscow school staff are “embassy employees with diplomatic passports, even though the school works as a commercial enterprise,” the Foreign Ministry said in comments carried by state news agency TASS.

“Therefore, a teacher is a U.S. diplomat, who works in a commercial organisation and enjoys diplomatic privileges. This is nonsense!” the Foreign Ministry said.