The Russian consulate general in Mazar-i-Sharif in Afghanistan has resumed its work, but does not issue visas yet, Russia's Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Director of the Second Asian Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry Zamir Kabulov said.
"The situation [in Afghanistan] has not yet normalized in terms of security. Nevertheless, despite this, we deemed it necessary to resume the work of the consulate general [in Mazar-i-Sharif]. I have to say right away that the technical formalities for the reopening are still going on. "The full work of any consular office is linked to issuing visas, but the consulate general is not doing that so far," he said in an interview with RTVI.
Kabulov noted that the consulate general is staffed and technical work, including on its security, is ongoing.
Kabulov told TASS in July 2021 that the consulate general in Mazar-i-Sharif had suspended its work because of the aggravated situation in the north of the country. Russian diplomats were evacuated. In an interview with TASS in January 2022, Kabulov said that the issue of resuming the work of the consulate general required careful interagency work, especially security issues. In November, he told TASS that an advance team inspected the building of the Russian consulate general.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: Lisa Ferdinando/Creative Commons 2.0
Based on materials from TASS