US Ambassador - RBC: "Modest progress is better than no progress"

"We can't get visas for American diplomats"

“We're meeting at Spaso House. Receptions have not been held here for a long time, as before, not only because of COVID-19 , but also because of a lack of staff. Is it true that you thought about giving up the lease on this mansion? And are there really only about a hundred American diplomats in Russia now?

“First of all, I am very glad to see you here at Spaso House. This is a historical place for both Russians and Americans. We rented it in 1933. Our first ambassador, Ambassador Bullitt, moved here in early 1934, 88 years ago. We have, as you have noticed, had cuts in our diplomatic presence and I would be happy to talk about this in more detail, but only as an absolute last resort, I would agree to consider not renting this building, which has such a history. The presidents who have stayed here, you have seen the photographs, they show the history of Russian-American, Soviet-American relations: Reagan and his meeting with Gorbachev here, Nixon and Brezhnev, Eisenhower, who arrived immediately after the end of the war in Europe. But you noticed a significant problem that we have, - reduction of our staff at the embassy in Moscow. Almost five years ago, I became US Under Secretary of State, and when I started we had 1,200 people in this mission, now we have a tenth. We have lost so many employees in four and a half years, most notably in the last year. The Russian government has made it illegal for us to hire employees from third countries, not only citizens of Russia, but also other countries. And it was a big blow to our work. We had about 180 people who were considered diplomats by both the US and the Russian side, and about the same number of people hired under the contract. This greatly reduced the possibility of our interaction with the Russian government and the Russians. And this is what seems to be a big problem, and not something I would welcome, and I'm working on fixing it.

How many American diplomats are in Russia now?

- Between 120-130 approximately, people go on vacation and so on. So that's a rough estimate. As I said, four years ago we had 1200 people, now only a tenth.

- Russia has several times offered to lift all the restrictions that have been introduced on both sides over the past few years, as Deputy Minister Sergei Ryabkov said. Why was this proposal not supported by your side?