MOSCOW (AP) — Russia said Friday that Canada is asking too many questions on a new visa application form and Russian tourist agencies warned that filling it in could land people in jail for divulging military secrets.
Canada introduced the new form this month, requiring Russians wishing to travel there to give a detailed account of their military service, asking to provide "branch of service, unit numbers and names of your commanding officers" as well as "dates and places of any active combat".
Men in Russia are required to do military service, although many avoid it by entering higher education.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrey Nesterenko told Friday’s briefing that the form is "excessive" and "raising serious questions."
"It contradicts the mainly positive dynamics of Russian-Canadian relations and will make it more difficult for Russians to obtain a visa," Nesterenko said, vowing to retaliate in kind unless Canada backs down.
The Union of Russian Travel Agencies has warned that submitting a completed form could violate state laws on military secrets.
"Those who decide to fill in this form could potentially face criminal prosecution," the union’s spokeswoman Irina Tyurina told The Associated Press. "The Canadians have always been fussy about applicants but they have clearly gone too far this time."
She cited a state law that prohibits passing on details on military units, including their location, and which carries a maximum seven-year prison sentence.
An official at the Canadian Embassy in Moscow who asked not to be identified by name because she was not authorized to comment told The Associated Press that the new application form was introduced worldwide on Oct. 14 "in order to facilitate future service improvements … and introduce consistency."
The official wouldn’t comment on the claims that a Russian national could breach the law when filling in the form.
Russians are long accustomed to complex visa forms. Some other countries including the United States require information about military service but don’t ask such specific questions.
Canada’s foreign minister praised the relations between the two countries at a meeting with his Russian counterpart in Moscow in September but made no mention of a change in application procedures for Russians.
