ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Due to the economic crisis, the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) representative in Russia declared the closure of the KRG’s office in Moscow on Monday.
“The KRG’s representation office was rented. We moved our office to a cheaper place, but the problem was not resolved, therefore we shut down the office,” Aso Jangi Burhan, the KRG’s representative to Russia, told Rudaw.
Burhan added that they have received no funds for eleven months. “In addition to the office’s rent, our employees, including myself, have not been paid yet.”
Burhan explained they will make every effort to maintain their work and connections in Russia “through the internet and telephone.”
According to the representative, the KRG’s Foreign Relations Department has attempted to resolve the issue several times, without success.
Burhan hoped “a resolution for this problem is found. A lot of efforts were made to open the KRG representative offices in these countries. With the closure of them, the KRG will be cut off from the outside.”
Other representatives in other countries suffer from the same problem. Speaking about the Iraqi embassy in Moscow, Burhan explained, “They have the same issue, but it is less severe. Their budget has been reduced by around 30 percent” by Baghdad.
Head of the KRG’s Foreign Relations Department, Falah Mustafa previously told Rudaw that the cost of the Region’s foreign representatives is $15 million.
The KRG has 14 foreign representative offices in Germany, Italy, America, Iran, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Russia, Poland, Australia, Sweden, Belgium, and Switzerland.
