The UK admits that problems with issuing visas to Russian participants of the Farnborough 2014 air show, which opened near London on July 14, are directly related to the situation in Ukraine, Russian Ambassador to the UK Alexander Yakovenko told reporters.
“There was a statement made on July 12 that the issue was related to the Ukrainian problem,” the ambassador said.
Out of 347 people, who were to come to the air show, only 167 obtained visas, Yakovenko said. “We will analyze this situation now,” the ambassador said.
Due to the fact that almost half the delegation did not go to the air show, serious problems exist with ensuring the work of the Russian side, Yakovenko said.
“We have written a note and made an official request asking to give official explanations as to why the Russian delegation has not been issued visas. Second, we have urged the UK to issue visas in the remaining several days, it refers to July 11, July 12 and July 13, in order to rectify the situation,” he said.
No official explanation of the UK has been received so far, the ambassador said. “The logic is unclear to us. Because, on the one hand, Britons say that certain people were not issued visas due to the situation in Ukraine, but on the other hand, a significant share of employees dealing with security of operating exhibits did not obtain visas,” he said.
“We will analyze why visas were not issued and what was this – denials or just delays,” Yakovenko said.
This is not the first time when Russian participants of events held in the UK did not get visas in time, Yakovenko said. “This year we had three major events, for which visas were not issued in time as well but were issued several days after, when the event started or even after it,” the ambassador said.
It concerns, in particular, high-tech exhibitions, organic food exhibitions and book exhibitions, Yakovenko said. Back then companies participating in these events sustained serious damage, he said.
