Does anyone remember this?
In April 1998 the Belarusian authorities informed those chiefs of mission who lived in Drozdy that they would have to vacate their residences due to the alleged need of utility repairs. … Other deplorable events, like an attempt to weld shut a gate to the U.S. ambassador’s residence, blocking off vehicular access to the compound, intrusions of the territories of the residences, led to the departure of the EU and U.S. ambassadors from Belarus on June 22, 1998 and such subsequent retaliatory measure as travel restrictions by the EU on a range of senior Belarusian officials.
That’s what I first thought of when I read this.
Britain has suspended issuing visas in Uzbekistan after local authorities cut security around the embassy in the capital Tashkent, an embassy spokesman said Wednesday.
“On the decision of the (city administration) the concrete blocks and iron fences in front of the embassy building that provided the protection were removed,” Leonid Kudryavtsev told AFP. “The embassy decided to suspend visa issuing temporarily as the level of protection of visitors and the embassy itself is reduced.”
Kudryavtsev said the city authorities had explained the changes were due to street works.
Visa-seekers have been advised to look to the UK’s embassies in Almaty and Moscow.
This post was written by...
Nathan Hamm – author of 2040 posts on Registan.net.
Nathan founded Registan.net in 2003. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Uzbekistan 2000-2001 and received his MA in Central Asian Studies from the University of Washington in 2007. Since 2007, he has worked full-time as an analyst, consulting with clients on Central Asian affairs, specializing in how socio-cultural factors shape risks and opportunities. Follow him on Twitter or drop him a line.
{ 4 comments }
a very interesting point. Nathan would you be interested in exhanging hyper links? I just started a brand new Uzbekistan Blog and am trying to drive more traffic to it. it’s in russian and only relates to Uzbekistan.
Nathan,
I really like your blogroll.
I am from Calif. and have lived in Moscow for the past 8 years. Only recently have I been moved to start two bilingual blogs, one of which has a Moscow focus.
I’ll definitely be listing you in my “nogs: blogs worth drinking section”
If you have ever been to Moscow and if during that time if was home for you, might you consider writing something, however short, about what Moscow was like for you?
Good luck,
raffi
The diplomatic community in Tashkent are trying to figure out what exactly is meant by the removal of security barriors from embassies. It’s not just the British Embassy, but also the Israeli Embassy, and possibly others to come. Israel still actually has pretty good relations with Uzbekistan. Nothing so far has happened outside the U.S. Embassy, and that relationship is completely in the tank.
Go figure. Not to mention that the term “road improvements” in Tashkent is basically an oxymoron.
Presumably we can expect an ‘Akromiya’ bomb outside the UK embassy any day now. Then they can say, we told you so.