Read and comment on this story from CNN on the news that Russia said on Friday that it would not continue the agreement under which American Peace Corps volunteers work in this country.
The story doesn't contain anything new that hasn't already been covered by AP and the NY Times' stories but curiously it quotes the Peace Corps web site as saying "The Peace Corps is very disappointed that the work of the volunteers is coming to an end but we respect the right of the host country to make that determination."
There is no such quote on the Peace Corps Web Site and, in fact, the Peace Corps has not posted anything at all about the situation in Russia on their web site. The quote CNN is referring to appeared in the story PCOL posted yesterday afternoon from our conversation with Peace Corps' Deputy Press Secretary Marta Metelko.
* This link was active on the date it was posted. PCOL is not responsible for broken links which may have changed.
Russia kicks out U.S. Peace Corps
Jill Dougherty
CNN Moscow Bureau Chief
Saturday, December 28, 2002
Posted: 2:27 PM EST (1927 GMT)
MOSCOW (CNN) -- The official statement from the Russian government came Christmas Day: the Peace Corps is no longer welcome in Russia.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said things have changed since 1992, when the U.S.-sponsored program began operating in Russia, and noted "changing economic and social tasks facing our country."
The ministry said it is consulting with the United States on other forms of partnership "more in line with today's needs."
The move comes at the end of a difficult year for the Peace Corps in Russia, with the Federal Security Service, successor to the KGB, charging that some volunteers were spying.
"Among them are persons who were collecting information on the social, political and economic situation in Russian regions, on officials of governmental bodies and departments, on the course of elections and so on," FSB head Nikolai Patrushev told reporters earlier this month.
The U.S. Embassy dismissed the charges as "groundless."
Earlier this year, Moscow refused to provide entry visas for new Peace Corps volunteers or to extend the visas of nearly half the volunteers already in the country.
Since the two governments signed an agreement in 1992 that authorized the program in Russia, more than 700 Peace Corps workers have volunteered in such areas as teaching English as a foreign language and in business education.
"The Peace Corps is very disappointed that the work of the volunteers is coming to an end but we respect the right of the host country to make that determination," the agency said in a posting on its Web site. Background on the Peace Corps in Russia
Read more background on the Peace Corps in Russia at:
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