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UN must look into US failure to issue visas to Russian senators, says Russian envoy

A total of 10 members of Russia’s delegation will be unable to attend a session of the UN General Assembly in New York

UNITED NATIONS, September 24. /TASS/. Moscow will retaliate to the US failure to issue visas to members of the Russian delegation taking part in a session of the UN General Assembly in New York, Russia’s First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dmitry Polyansky told TASS on Tuesday.

"This will have consequences, we will think about how to retaliate," he pledged. "Apparently, it’s time for the UN to look closer into Americans’ non-compliance with their commitments as the host of the UN headquarters," Polyansky said.

Several Russian senators, including Chairman of the Federation Council’s Foreign Affairs Committee Konstantin Kosachev, were scheduled to take part in the UN General Assembly’s annual session this week. However, some of them have failed to obtain visas and will be unable to attend the session, due from September 24 to September 30.

Kosachev told TASS that a total of 10 members of Russia’s delegation had failed to receive visas. According to him, the documents were at the US embassy and had not been prepared by the delegates’ departure on Tuesday.

The United States has broken international rules by failing to issue visas to Russian senators, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.

Peskov has dismissed the situation as unacceptable, stressing that this demands a tough response by both Moscow and the United Nations.

"Washington is violating its international commitments, this is a direct violation of Washington’s international obligations because this is not a bilateral visit, this is a visit by Russia’s delegation to the UN General Assembly," Peskov told reporters.

The Kremlin spokesman highlighted that in this case "the US only provides its territory in the UN headquarters" and actually the only thing it can do is to ban visits to other cities. Peskov stressed that the US has no right to impose any restrictions on those who are visiting the UN General Assembly.