Visa sabotage? Russian state arms exporter deals at Farnborough air show ‘disrupted’
Published time: July 12, 2014 11:11
The bulk of the official Russian delegation due this weekend at the UK’s Farnborough air show has not received British visas and will have to stay at home. Rosoboronexport arms export monopoly’s important mil-tech negotiations are therefore derailed.The Russian embassy in the UK has urgently filed a note with the Foreign Office demanding an official explanation.
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The Rosoboronexport delegation was meant to number 17 members, of which only 5, mostly Office of Protocol staff, have been granted a British visa. The key Rosoboronexport negotiators, including the head of the delegation, Sergey Kornev, have been denied visas.
Other people without a visa are mostly those representing Russia’s state corporations, such as the Roskosmos space agency, the Rosaviatsia air transport agency, the Rostech innovative technologies corporation, the Irkut aircraft corporation, the Sukhoi aircraft corporation, the Rosoboronexport defense exporting monopoly and others. Overall, 74 Russian corporations and firms applied to participate in the Farnborough-2014 air show.
“We can already say that important military-technical cooperation negotiations scheduled for Monday between Rosoboronexport and foreign partners have been virtually disrupted,” the RIA Novosti news agency quoted an unspecified source in the Russian delegation.
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The source stressed that all necessary documents had been applied for well in advance - over a month ago. As a rule, British officials do not comment on national visa policies.
The official representative of Russia’s embassy in the UK, Aleksey Dobrinsky, said that it wasn’t just top officials who have been denied visas. Technical specialists have also been rejected.
For that reason, the previously announced live presentation of Russian assault helicopters at Farnborough on Monday will not go ahead.
Most Russian journalists that were supposed to be accredited for Farnborough-2014 will also stay at home.
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Farnborough-2014 international aerospace exhibition will open on Monday, July 14, and will last a week, with tens of billions of dollars’ worth of contracts expected to be signed. Back in 2012, Farnborough racked up $72 billion worth of contracts, with 750 aircrafts sold.
Two years ago, when the Farnborough-2012 air show took place, Britain played the same card, delaying visas for a number of the Russian delegation till the very last moment. There also were problems with the Russian Knights aerobatic team, which had difficulties getting permission for its military hardware to leave the UK.
“This is not the first case when Russian representatives failed to take part in international exhibitions [in the EU],” Dobrinsky stressed, giving several examples.
The Blades air display team perform at the Farnborough Airshow 2012 in southern England July 9, 2012. (Reuters/Luke MacGregor)
The Blades air display team perform at the Farnborough Airshow 2012 in southern England July 9, 2012. (Reuters/Luke MacGregor)
In May, private Russian companies were unable to take part fully in the Info Security Europe 2014 exhibition, Europe's largest industry event in London, and suffered financial losses as a result (prepaid stands, participation fees, hotels, airline tickets etc.), because some Russian participants were not granted British visas.
On another occasion, visas were not granted to specialists who planned participation in SANA 2014, the 26th International Exhibition of Organic and Natural Products, held in early June in Bologna, Italy. And before that, in April, a significant number of Russian writers were unable to visit The London Book Fair to present their books, again because of rejected visa applications.
Source: RT News - here.
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COMMENT
How dishonourable is that, UK?
That's pathetic.
And it's consistently pathetic.
Hang your heads in shame UK.
