MOSCOW, April 17. /TASS/: Washington claims that out of 80 Russian schoolchildren who were studying in the US through educational programs 51 kids already arrived back home, but the Russian Foreign Ministry is only aware of six such children, spokeswoman for the Russian diplomatic agency Maria Zakharova said Friday.
In view of this, Moscow is looking for concrete information from Washington but there are few results so far, the spokeswoman informed. "We continue to seek specifics from the US authorities about the Russian schoolchildren who travelled to the country for various educational and introductory programs," the diplomat told a briefing. "There have been few results yet. The US Department of State is refusing to admit that they curate the Secondary School Student Program even though its official website has direct links to it."
According to Zakharova, Washington still has not submitted lists of names and phone numbers of the Russian schoolkids to Moscow. "Ten days ago, we were informed that as part of the previously mentioned program 74 Russian children had been staying in the United States since fall. Currently, there are reports from the American side that there are actually 80 of them," Zakharova revealed. "It is claimed that only 29 of them are still staying in the US while the rest have allegedly left for home."
"We have official information about only six kids who made it to Russia," the diplomat underlined. "It is unclear where the rest are, when and where from they left and, the main thing, whether they arrived in Russia. The [US] Department of State cannot respond, we are working on this now."
The diplomat added that the US side only today provided Moscow with a list of seven organizations that dealt with schoolkid exchanges between Russia and the United States. However, the list does not contain their addresses or phone numbers. "Our embassy in Washington is trying to find contacts of these organizations based on their email addresses," the diplomat said.
In this regard, the spokeswoman expressed regret that the American partners are perfectly incapable of providing clear information about the Russian school students. "It possibly can be explained by the fact that the Department of State is working remotely," she suggested. "But we would like to see greater work and more cooperation considering that we are talking about minors."
Responsibility and risks
The diplomat noted that the US nowadays has a multitude of such educational programs for foreign children. "Their key aim is to popularize American values and lifestyle. For next time it would be great to embed aspects of children’s security to these programs and meticulously work on the algorithm [of action] in case of emergency," she said.
"We would prefer if our schools and, of course, parents who agree to send their children to such precarious tours realized the possible risks," the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman underlined. "This case should become a starting point when making such decisions. Implementing any projects involving taking Russian minors overseas without having it properly agreed with relevant Russian agencies is unacceptable."
According to Zakharova, the existing situation exposed all the downsides of these programs. "Russian diplomats are doing everything possible to track the schoolchildren," the diplomat assured. "However, it does not lift the responsibility for their return from those who brought our children to the US. They at least should cooperate 100%."
