Foreign diplomats were unable to receive QR codes in Russia

What happened

Against the background of the introduction of a lockdown in Moscow and other cities of Russia since the end of October and a system of QR codes, according to which, depending on the region, vaccinated and recovered coronavirus is allowed access to various institutions, foreign diplomats working in the country again faced problems.

We are talking, first of all, about those vaccinated with foreign vaccines. Most of them do not have QR codes, although the issue of obtaining them was raised before the Russian Foreign Ministry back in the summer, when Moscow introduced access to restaurants and cafes using QR codes, as well as to public events with more than 500 people. As three sources in foreign diplomatic missions told RBC, a number of Western embassies sent a collective letter to the Russian Foreign Ministry with a request to assist in issuing QR codes to diplomats vaccinated with drugs not approved in the country. However, due to the fact that the system was canceled less than a month after its introduction, this issue then lost relevance and, as a result, remained unresolved.

The EU Delegation to Russia confirmed to RBC that various requests had been sent to the Foreign Ministry, including on behalf of the EU member states. “Initially, the ministry reacted positively and some diplomats received QR codes. However, later the approach of the ministry changed, and it became impossible to obtain QR codes. We continue to maintain contact with the ministry on this issue, but, unfortunately, we have not yet been able to find a satisfactory solution, ”the office explained. The European diplomatic mission added that speeding up the current process of recognizing the equivalence of EU digital covid certificates could help resolve this issue.