WASHINGTON, April 11. /TASS/. Discussions have started on the sidelines of the World Bank about relocating its headquarters from North America to another region because of the various restrictive measures of the United States, Russian executive director of the World Bank Roman Marshavin told TASS in an interview.

The US is stepping up its practice of hindering participation in such meetings with regard to states it dislikes, Marshavin said. "It is known that the US undertook not to prevent delegates of shareholder countries from participating in the work of such organizations when the decision was made to accommodate the headquarters of the Bretton Woods institutions in Washington. Americans are only undermining their own credibility with such actions and are simply quarreling with their bread and butter," the executive director noted, commenting on problems with visas.

"Probably, the visa denial in their mind is some kind of demonstration of power. In actuality, this looks more like weakness and being afraid of allowing alternative viewpoints, which has nothing in common with the principles of democracy and impartiality underlying multilateral institutions. As a consequence of such unfriendly actions, talks have already begun on the sidelines in the bank regarding the feasibility of relocating the headquarters from North America to any other region, for example, to Africa or to the Middle East. I do not rule out that sooner or later this may occur, unless, of course, common sense prevails and headquarters owners want to return to the commonly recognized norms of diplomacy," Marshavin added.