Relatives of air crash victims haven't appealed to German embassy in Moscow for visas

The relatives of the people who perished in the air crash over Germany have not asked the consular department of the German Embassy in Moscow for visas yet, a staffer of the consular department told RIA Novosti.

According to him, requests to issue visas were received only from the Emergency Situations Ministry, the Bashkirian Airlines and other official bodies.

All in all, 30-40 people have asked for visas, the visas were issued to them in a single list, and no one waited for more than 1.5-2 hours, the staffer of the consular department said.

As for the victims' relatives, the department received an official ordinance to issue free-of-charge visas to them as soon as possible. The time limits for their issue will depend only on the number of the applicants and on the technical possibilities of the consular department, the Embassy officials stressed.

At the same time, as the interlocutor said, issuing visas right at the German airport is legally possible. According to him, such an option might be quite real and more simple, since the relatives of the crash victims would not lose time in Moscow on their way from Bashkiria.

Commenting on the situation with those relatives of the victims who have no travelling passports, the staffer of the consular department pointed out that this question is more within the competence of the Russian authorities.