The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned on Tuesday the US envoy to Moscow after it turned out that the US had failed to provide several members of the Russian delegation to the United Nations General Assembly with visas timely.
"The American ambassador has been summoned to the Foreign Ministry, our embassy in Washington is taking measures... This is a direct violation of Washington’s international obligations. It’s not a bilateral visit, it’s a visit of the Russian delegation to the UN General Assembly," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Commenting on the visa denial, Peskov said that the situation was alarming and unacceptable, adding that Washinton's move violates international obligations.
"America provides its territory to the UN Headquarters, and in fact, the only thing America has the right to do is to limit, for example, the stay of members of the Russian delegation to one city, New York. The US has no right to impose any other restrictions on those heading to the General Assembly. Now, these rules have been violated. This certainly requires a rather tough reaction from Moscow... and from the UN," he said.
Earlier in the day, Konstantin Kosachev, the chairman of the Russian upper house's foreign affairs committee, said he had failed to receive a US visa in due time and would, therefore, miss the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.
New York is hosting the 74th session of the UNGA from September 24-30. Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov is expected to hold dozens of meetings with heads of states and governments, and foreign ministers on the UNGA sidelines, and also to take part in meetings of the UN Security Council and multilateral and regional negotiations of foreign ministers.
