WASHINGTON, March 7. /TASS/. Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov has difficulties in conveying Moscow’s position to US Department of State officials, the Russian Embassy’s Press Secretary Igor Girenko said in a statement.
When commenting on US Department of State Spokesperson Ned Price’s remark about US officials’ contact with the Russian envoy, Girenko said: "If the official representative of the State Department does not pretend, then at least he does not tell everything about the nature of such interaction. Confirming the very fact of the Russian Ambassador’s conversations taking place, however, he forgets that such contacts are few."
"Not always has Anatoly Antonov the ability to quickly and efficiently fulfill Moscow’s instructions. The State Department’s heads either refuse to receive the Ambassador, or redirect Mr Antonov to low-level officials. There were cases when the Ambassador could not even state the Russian position during the meeting. He was interrupted and it was made clear that Americans had more important things to attend to than listen to the opinion of Russia," the diplomat noted.
He added that "after the Russian Ambassador’s demarches, our requests remain unanswered or we get a reaction after several years." "There is no feedback on the Embassy's appeals on the problems of the Arctic and APEC, where the United States is currently chairing. A blatant example of the indifference of the local officialdom is that for almost two years, after repeated Anatoly Antonov’s appeals, Washington has been dragging out, under various pretexts, the process of agreeing on the texts of the diplomatic notes on the termination of the Agreement Regarding Assurances Concerning the Source Material Transferred From the US to the Russian Federation of March 24, 1911 (the so-called The Assurances Agreement)," Girenko stressed.
"I do not think that the State Department will be satisfied with such an attitude in Moscow towards the requests of new United States Ambassador Lynne Tracy. Obviously, the situation needs to be straightened out. It is in the interests of both countries," the Russian embassy’s press secretary concluded.