This a real letter, not some spoof. The guy who wrote it I know and have done for years. He funded us when we set up our company The Low Hanging Fruit Company Ltd ( motto, ” Scandium, the perfect gift ” ) , whose web site you can go to on the left.
So I know David Baskett, I’ve met the Khatchik mentioned, and his predecessor in office, plus the TTE employee who later died. I’ve even met the Ambassador Pickering mentioned, him being a friend of a friend of the family, but some years before he got elevated to an Excellency.

Read it and weep.

April 14, 2004
Ms. Natasha S. Franceschi, Vice Consul
United States Embassy
Moscow, Russia
Corrected Copy
Via Fax: 011 7 095 728 5358

Dear Natasha,

RE: Mr. Khatchik Eguiazarian (Embassy fax sent April 14, 2004)

Thank you for the telephone time and the gracious personal attention you have given to this matter and to me. You sound like a highly intelligent and dedicated officer in a difficult environment.

As agreed with you, Mr. Eguiazarian will re-apply for a multi entry business visa (once again paying the $100 fee and waiting another month for a service which was not completed and which was denied, in my opinion, in error by the Embassy). At that time I will forward to your attention, (on your personal fax), a copy of the new application, along with the vast evidence of Section 214(b) compliance which Mr. Eguiazarian had already brought with him to his original interview. Any reasonable person would find his evidence persuasive. It is evidence which the consular officer never looked at.

As I mentioned to you, I have personally visited Khatchik’s very excellent and highly profitable Moscow City support service and commercial business and have been a guest at one of his four, very impressive residences. I did so in his POV that is probably better than the ones driven by most US Embassy personnel. As a retired US Army officer I will be glad to give you a sworn statement to that effect. I think that third party verifications have value, contrary to your stated view. It would be absolutely wonderful if someone from the Embassy would call Khatchik and invite him to come in, this time keeping the scheduled meeting time.

I suspect that Khatchik has little incentive to become a renegade cab driver in Brooklyn. He is in discussions with us to buy approximately $15,000,000 USD worth of American equipment. Germany wants the deal.

As promised, I will be working with our political representatives to fix, what is in my view, a perverse and dysfunctional visa system that punishes and demeans the innocent, but has let criminals into the US. It leaves total power with a single individual, often one who is young and inexperienced in international trade. He or she is a “tax consumer” with a guaranteed paycheck, not a tax generator; has 30 days off a year but may be having a “bad hair day.” Such easily abused authority combined with a customer who is often already intimidated (and from our current experience, without even the appeal rights that ancient Roman citizens had to “Caesar”), is a system loaded for tragedy.

The historic visa service at the Embassy in Moscow is so troubled, that it was a point of discussion at the last summit meeting between President Bush and President Putin.

Not even a single, US Supreme Court Justice (who must vote with others) has the power which is apparently conferred by the State Department on normally well intentioned, but fallible individuals who, under high pressure, make quick and often faulty judgments, without a full understanding of the consequences of a bad decision.

Some observations:

You mentioned that the US Embassy is now handling 100,000 visa applicants per year and that you are crushed with the pressure. That is interesting. The Embassy in Moscow used to handle more than 200,000 a year. It seems that business and vacation dollars are flowing to other countries and we are loosing that tourist and commercial business to our international competitors. Perhaps the problem is the process imposed by us.

Over the past 15 years, I have had more than 500 Russian visitors, with perhaps 20-30 running into problems at the Embassy as a result of mistakes made by a consular officer. All but one of the initial rejections were in fact reversed by higher officials, and visas were issued shortly thereafter. Not one TTE guest ever violated the visa limitations.

The one that was not reversed involved a TTE employee in Siberia who made the difficult journey to Moscow, and stood in line with her husband (who had a visa) for hours in the cold. She was rejected in 30 seconds for what was to be a fully prepaid medical treatment trip. She returned in dejection and despair to Siberia. When appealed by me, the embassy agreed to reverse the decision if she would come back. She did not have the strength or the courage to go though the humiliating process again and died a few months later. Her husband, a former TTE employee is still bitter.

Last year, one of your “fully trained” consular officers rejected a series of business visas including one for a Russian deputy minister, after declaring that the faxed copies of United States EXIM Bank letters, TTE documents, GazpromBank messages, a $25,000,000 Raspadsky CSJC Contract (the largest coal mine in Russia) and my letter of invitation were “frauds” due to the “quality of the faxes.”

It was only with the beautiful help of Bill Henderson, Vice Consul that that terrible, arrogant, stupid and almost tragic decision was reversed and a $25 million USD contract rescued. The contract resulted in safer, “greener” coal mining by the company now being done in Siberia and many, tax-producing, American jobs were saved.

The resulting dozen or so visas, (which had been denied) were hand delivered to the individuals by a TTE associate, without the need for another “interview” and in most cases saved more 4,000 KM trips to Moscow.

More than $1/4 billion USD in follow on contracts for additional advanced coal mining equipment are now being executed. This will help our national balance of payments and US employment problems at least a little bit. This initial contract and its resulting contracts, were almost killed by a “trained” Consular Officer who had no clue, apparently did not read the supporting documents as required under Section 214(b) and did not care enough to even make a phone call to ask.

I must mention that in Soviet times, I came many times with Russian guests into the consular interrogation room for hours of standing and waiting. The room was always dirty and the toilet was always broken. Some elderly folks became faint.

In the early 1990s, I came to the same dirty room with more guests and the toilet was still broken. Since I had construction crews in Russia, I offered to paint the room, and fix the toilet for free. I was told it was too much paperwork for the Embassy to handle and anyway a major Fortune 500 US company had a contract to fix things up.

In the mid 1990s I came to the Embassy with guests and the crowded room was still dirty and the toilet was still broken. I at least got the USMC guard to replace the dirty US Flag that was hanging outside and show a little bit of pride in our country’s “face” in the second most important country in the world.

I do miss the honorable Ambassador Pickering who gave me his home telephone number to call if visa problems came up. He had successfully assisted me when these issues arose in the past.

I have had a long standing dream. Perhaps you can help me fulfill it.

Distributed around Russia and in Moscow are clean, small-town banking style offices where a guest can walk in and sit down at a real desk with a consular officer who is not hiding behind a wall, and who is there to help a visitor open his or her “visa account”. In the tastefully decorated room there is: coffee and tea, a working toilet, a copy machine and a working phone/fax for the officer or visitor to make quick verification calls if needed. As in banks, video cameras help with the security and professionalism. As with local banks, it is open on Saturday mornings.

It resembles the quality and service offered by the Russian Consulate in San Francisco but with open desks and a welcome sign.

I hope you can help turn the dream into reality, for the good of our country. To help get things started, I will be glad to help pay the first year’s rent for such an office in Moscow.

Sincerely

David E. Baskett
President

CF: Ambassador Alexander Vershbow, Colin Powell, Lois Capps, EXIM Bank, Moscow Times, Wall Street Journal, LA Times, President Bush, Sen. Kerry, Santa Maria Times, Washington Post, American Chamber of Commerce-Moscow, Russian Embassy-Washington DC, Russian Consulate, San Francisco, and Khatchik.