Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Sunday that Moscow “will not forgive” the United States for refusing to grant visas to journalists who were to accompany it to the United Nations headquarters. “We will not forget, we will not forgive,” said Lavrov, who will preside over Monday and Tuesday meetings of the UN Security Council in New York, the body’s headquarters. Russian minister called Washington’s decision “stupid” and “cowardly”.
Russia assumes this month the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council, which is the turn of a country each month -whether it is a permanent member or not- based on alphabetical order. The Russian presidency unleashed an avalanche of criticism in the midst of the offensive in Ukraine. “A country that claims to be the smartest, the strongest, the freest, chickened out and even did something stupid,” Lavrov lamented. The United States, he continued, “proved [its] free speech statements” by denying visas to Russian journalists.
A few hours earlier, the deputy minister, Sergei Riabkov, had indicated that despite “repeated contacts in recent days” from Moscow, Washington had not “granted visas” to the journalists who were to accompany Lavrov to the United States. Riabkov criticized “an outrageous and absolutely unacceptable method” on the part of the United States and accused it of pretending to be working to “find a solution.” “We will find ways to respond to this, so that Americans will remember for a long time that this is not being done. And they will,” he warned.
A diplomatic source quoted by the Russian press agency Ria Novosti stated that, in retaliation, “there is no doubt that American journalists [in Russia] will experience all the ‘nuisances and inconveniences’, and a similar attitude” from the Russian authorities.
The US State Department, when asked by AFP, stated that it usually grants visas to Russian delegates for UN events but justified the deadlines for processing the applications by referring to the restrictions imposed on US embassy staff. in Moscow, whose number has been greatly reduced since the start of the military offensive in Ukraine.
“We process hundreds of visas each year relating to Russian delegates to UN events. To make sure the processing is done in the [desired] time frame, we regularly remind Russia’s UN mission — as we do with all the other UN missions — that the United States needs to [receive] the requests as soon as possible,” a State Department spokesperson said in a statement.
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