Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is ready to respond to the introduction of new rules concerning Canadian visas for Russian citizens, – said Andrei Nesterenko, spokesman of the Ministry.
“This would be a step toward the deterioration of relations, but Moscow considers necessary such measures to ensure that the Russian citizens would not suffer additional bureaucratic difficulties in obtaining Canadian visas”, – ITAR-TASS quotes Nesterenko.
In particular new items of the questionnaire for short-term travel to Canada cause discontent, as it contains a variety of highly personal questions about the past of the applicant.
In particular, the question of military service needs to specify not only the fact itself, but also period, rank, name of the unit`s chief, corps and duties during the service.
As the representative of MFA notes, in this case, the applicant must possess an impressively broad knowledge about organizations where he worked. In addition, it is worth noting that the filing of such information may often fall under the heading of the Criminal Code of revealing state secrets.
“Modified Canadian questionnaire goes beyond the current criteria... It is discordant with the overall positive dynamics of Russian-Canadian relations and complicates obtaining visas for Russian citizens”, – said Andrey Nesterenko.
How exactly the dissonance in the rules of visas for Canadian and Russian citizens will be resolved we will see during the forthcoming bilateral consultations with Canadian diplomats. The retaliatory measures to Canada are not ruled out, that may get the situation worse, but the infringement of rights of any party is inadmissible.
