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| Russian-American flight connection could be severed as US reduces visa issuance – Moscow | Russian-American flight connection could be severed as US reduces visa issuance – Moscow |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Direct flight connections between Russia and the US could come to a complete halt, due to Washington’s ongoing “visa blockade” policy against Russian citizens, the Foreign Ministry has said. | Direct flight connections between Russia and the US could come to a complete halt, due to Washington’s ongoing “visa blockade” policy against Russian citizens, the Foreign Ministry has said. |
| “We cannot rule out that the two countries could be left without [direct] air transportation. Aeroflot, which is the only company to operate regular flights between Russia and the US, might be forced to halt them, as its pilots are facing mounting difficulties with American visas,” the ministry said in a statement. | |
| Last year, the US extended the visa waiting time to 85 days, and recently upped it to 250 days, making applying for a visa “effectively pointless.” A consular staff shortage, which Washington has cited as the reason for delays, is not the real reason behind the “blockade,” the ministry said. | |
| “Washington has imposed the visa blockade consciously, as an another way to put pressure [on Moscow]. They are deliberately targeting Russian citizens due to Russia’s independent international politics, jeopardizing trips for business, cultural, scientific, and simply family and [visits of a] friendly nature, en masse,” the statement reads. | |
| “The US authorities seem to be afraid that visiting Russians will open the eyes of common Americans on the absurdity of the anti-Russian propaganda which they purvey, and therefore purposefully disrupt contact between peoples." | |
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