Woman says Russian embassy in Canada denying her access to consular services – National | 24CA News

A Russian lady says she has been denied consular providers by her nation’s embassy in Canada over claims her Facebook exercise poses a safety menace.

“It totally came as a shock to me,” stated Elena Pushkareva, who left Russia a decade in the past.

Pushkareva stated the Russian Embassy, which declined to remark to The Canadian Press, denied her entry to its consular service in Ottawa, the place she had an appointment to replace her kids’s paperwork.

Pushkareva left Russia a decade in the past for political causes. She lives in Ottawa and had visited the consular workplace earlier than, as just lately as Dec. 28, and booked an appointment in January to course of paperwork.

A number of hours forward of the appointment, she stated, she acquired a telephone name from a person who recognized himself as a Russian consular officer in Ottawa, however refused to present his identify.

“They called me that morning, telling me there was no need to come, that they will not provide me with the service, and that was the personal decision made by the ambassador,” she stated.

“I don’t understand why they decided to call me first, why it was so important for them that I don’t even come.”

Pushkareva stated the official stated Ambassador Oleg Stepanov cancelled the appointment as a result of she posed a security threat to the constructing, by advantage of being a part of a Facebook group.

The group in query advocates for releasing jailed Russian opposition chief Alexey Navalny, which Pushkareva stated is for individuals who really feel Russia shouldn’t jail individuals for his or her political beliefs, no matter whether or not they assist Navalny.

She stated the person on the telephone stated that if Pushkareva didn’t imagine him, she might present up on the consulate and be instructed the identical factor, which is what she stated occurred. The consulate sits in a constructing down the road from the embassy.

She stated she recorded the Jan. 18 trade. In the audio recording, an unnamed official tells her that being a part of a selected Facebook web page has led the ambassador to verbally ask employees to disclaim her entry to the consulate.

The official says in Russian that the Facebook web page included “information with calls for violent actions, to the detriment of the interests of the Russian Federation. For this reason, you’re denied admission to the consular department.”

In the recording, Pushkareva asks what precisely on Facebook amounted to a menace, however the consulate supplies no instance.

Instead, the official stated she might write a letter to the ambassador, which she has performed.

“With this decision you have gone beyond the legal framework of our country,” her letter reads in Russian, accusing the consulate of violating Russia’s structure by depriving her of consular entry and never offering a written purpose.

“I have used the services of consular departments in Canada many times, and none of the parties had any problems in terms of security,” she wrote.

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Pushkareva famous that the consulate employees appeared to call a public Facebook web page and conflated it with a personal Facebook group with an identical identify. Pushkareva has visited each, however stated she will not be liable for what’s posted there. She additionally stated she has not seen violence being advocated on both web site.

She additionally famous that Facebook is meant to delete content material deemed to be threatening violence, if moderators don’t achieve this first.

The embassy declined to remark, however the Novaya Gazeta news web site stated a consulate official insisted Pushkareva had not been denied providers, solely entry to the consulate constructing. Yet the official didn’t specify how Pushkareva could possibly be helped with out getting into the constructing, which they referred to as an establishment with safety measures.

“If you don’t deny me the service, maybe you’ll provide me with the service or on the street? Maybe they’ll bring out a desk? So anyway, I took another appointment. I will follow on, because it’s kind of interesting,” she stated with amusing.

She stated she went public together with her story out of a way that preserving quiet wouldn’t assist resolve the scenario.

Yet Pushkareva is anxious that being barred from the consulate will later forestall her from getting her kids’s Russian passports updated. The considered them not having the ability to go to relations is “very painful,” however journey appears unimaginable within the close to time period.

“There are not that many people here, who are not afraid to go speak in public,” she stated.

“With every situation like my case, it’s really frightens people.”

Pushkareva stated she left Russia in 2013 out of considerations the nation was more and more much less democratic. Still, she was shocked by Moscow’s choice a yr in the past to invade Ukraine, which she has protested in Ottawa.

“My personal feeling was that it was getting worse, and now it’s so sad to witness that it is getting much worse,” she stated.

“It’s important that Canadians know that we exist, that there are Russians who have a different opinion from the opinion of (President) Vladimir Putin and the Russian government.”

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