MOSCOW, September 30. /TASS/. A flat turndown of Russia’s initiative to hold some of the United Nations events in other countries but the United States would indicate that some of the UN member nations tend to uncritically support Washington’s position without giving a thought to Russia’s proposal, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in an interview with the International Affairs journal that came out on Monday.
The senior Russian diplomat recalled that last year the United Nations General Assembly had voted down a Russia-initiated resolution in support of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. It was turned down, in his words, by the so-called US supporters the Americans had managed to "collect under their standards through intimidation or by some other methods" only because this resolution had been initiated by Russia.
"Let us wait and see how the majority of the UN member nations react to the idea of changing the venues for some of the events. It is an obvious thing and we should at least try. But if it fails to be supported again, it will mean that people are simply under Washington’s thumb, due to lots of reasons, and give no thought to the meaning of the initiative being guided by the speculation that once it is Russia’s idea it is dubious and questionable," Ryabkov said.
Ryabkov reported last Thursday that Russia suggested meetings of the United Nations General Assembly First Committee be organized outside the United States. The move, in his words, was prompted by Washinfton’s failure to issue entry visas for a number of members of the Russian delegation to the UN General Assembly in due time.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said earlier US visas had not been issued to a number of Russian delegates to the UN event. Among them were Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Russia’s Federation Council (upper parliament house), Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the International Affairs Committee of the Russian State Duma (lower parliament house), Dmitry Rogozin, director general of Russia’s state space corporation Roscosmos, and ten foreign ministry officials. In the wake of this scandal, some media outlets suggested relocating the UN headquarters to another country.