#8
Moscow Times
October 22, 2001
Indifference a Constant at U.S. Embassy
By Matt Bivens

Full disclosure: For the past eight years, I have been washing dishes by hand because of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.

I made a circa-1993 bet with the woman who was to become my wife, Svetlana Sviataia, that she would easily get a U.S. visa as my fiance. What can I say? I was young and trusting of -- trusting of! -- the U.S. government. When I claimed we would be introducing Svetlana to my parents within weeks, Svetlana, with gimlet-eyed Russian realism, took my bet, and then watched in satisfaction as the embassy took me down to a crushing defeat.

We won't get into the fact that I would have let her out of the bet in a few days, while Svetlana, who has not washed a dish in nine years as far as I know, held me to it like a cheap lawyer. (That would be a whole separate discussion.) Nor will we dwell upon the other indignities of getting her that visa, from the staggering $600 (!) for the routine physical at the embassy-approved American Medical Center in St. Petersburg, to the U.S. government form that asked, "yes or no," whether she had ever been a Nazi or a drug-dealer or a prostitute or a terrorist or a member of the komsomol. ("Yes.")

I have forgiven the embassy all that and more. But I still find it an exasperating place, among the least "diplomatic" in all of Russia.

Last week, the embassy abruptly closed its doors to visa applicants. This created a lot of hardship; but given Sept. 11, I'm sure most were disposed to be understanding. Now limited service is restored, routed through select Federal Express offices. Having once paid $600 for a physical that would cost $15 in the States, I can't help wondering how hustlers like Federal Express and the AMC get these lucrative arrangements. That's probably just me though; most Russian visa applicants, again, are disposed to be understanding of this extra hassle.

But frankly, the embassy doesn't seem to care one way or another if they are understanding.

The embassy has made no effort to explain, or apologize; in fact, I have not seen anything anywhere that makes an obvious simple point: Russians should not feel they are being looked upon as potential terrorists. "The American Embassy in Moscow is temporarily without adequate facilities to meet personally with members of the traveling public," is the curt explanation on the embassy's web site. [usembassy.state.gov/moscow/wwwhfede.html].

(About that web site, by the way. Go to a good search engine to find that site, and you are likely to tumble into a time warp, back to when Bill Clinton was president and James Collins the ambassador, and the embassy was getting ready to move into its fabulously expensive swanky new quarters. [usembassy.state.gov/posts/rs9/wwwhmain.html].

I've been coming to Russia for a decade, and all along I've asked: Why do Russians have to stand outside, in the rain or snow, for a U.S. visa?

I used to ask why we couldn't shell out for an awning, but I don't do that anymore -- because I'm tired of diplomats responding, with deep satisfaction, that Russian officials won't let them put an awning on the front of their historic building. Fine, then -- make room inside! Which is what you would do if you wanted to express respect. Instead, the one constant from the embassy to Russian applicants is indifference.

Matt Bivens, a former editor of The Moscow Times, is a Washington-based fellow of The Nation Institute [www.thenation.com].