The U.S. and Russia are having "difficulties" over Georgia. But, is that a reason for the U.S. to block tourist visas to anyone carrying a Russian passport?
I work for a global company and do business in Russia. I'm also learning to speak the Russian language. Today I was talking to my Russian teacher about the conflict in Georgia and she told me that the State department is denying visas to anyone carrying a Russian passport.
She knows this first hand, because she has a very good Russian friend that has been living in Germany for several years. Her friend made plans months ago to come visit my teacher here in the U.S. Her friend bought plane tickets, put in an application for a tourist visa, and had every reason to believe it would be granted.
However, when she went to pick up her visa one or two days back, the American embassy in Berlin told her the visa was cancelled. When she asked why, the embassy person said that no visas were being issued to anyone carrying a Russian passport.
Yes, the situation in Georgia is tricky. But is it standard U.S. government practice to revoke the tourist visas of all citizens from a particular country, over what could be considered a fairly standard international incident?
As I recall, after 9/11, Saudi Arabian citizens were not being denied visas to enter the United States, even though fifteen of the nineteen hijackers were Saudi Arabian.
Given this, revoking the visas of all Russian citizens who want to come to the U.S. seems to me to be not only an extreme measure, but an intentional provocation.
Anyone know what's going on here?