MOSCOW, April 29. /TASS/. The Russian Foreign Ministry has demanded an explanation from its US colleagues regarding the situation with Russian school students that remain in the USA during the coronavirus pandemic, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with TASS First Deputy Director General Mikhail Gusman.
"We are waiting for clear, detailed explanations from our US colleagues," the minister said.
He stressed that Russia is not satisfied with the comments of US Ambassador to Moscow John Sullivan on this matter. "He said that there is no need to worry: some have returned home, some changed their mind on leaving, some are in families, some have moved somewhere. Such explanations are unacceptable to us," Lavrov stated.
Russian diplomats must get detailed information on every Russian school student remaining in the USA during the coronavirus pandemic, he added.
"We must know where each child and school student is, with whom they are staying and why. We also need to understand how underage persons could have boarded an international flight. There is a lot of work ahead of us, we are working on it together with the Russian Ministry of Enlightenment," Lavrov said.
He reminded that today, 19 school students had been evacuated on a flight from New York "who arrived in the USA in some way unclear to us, through some shady programs that the Russian government knew nothing about."
Last week, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated that Russia would make its conclusions on the insufficient aid of the US government in the search of Russian school students remaining in the USA. She noted that US officials are distancing themselves from this issue, ignoring the requests of the Russian embassy.