MOSCOW, April 23. /TASS/. The non-issuance of US visas to Russian journalists accompanying Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s on his travel to the United Nations Security Council events in New York gives grounds to look at re-locating the UN headquarters to another country, a Russian lawmaker and party leader told TASS on Sunday.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said earlier on Sunday that no American visas had been issued to Russian journalists. On her Telegram channel, she cited the US embassy as saying that they were "working on this." She slammed this situation as a "manipulation of the freedom of speech and infringement on the rights of journalists."

"I have said more than once that we should think about re-locating the UN headquarters from New York to another country whose authorities would not assert themselves in such a disgusting way. And the situation with journalists gives another reason for that," said Leonid Slutsky, chair of the international committee of the Russian State Duma (lower parliament house) and the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR).

He stressed that this is not the first time when the United States "abuses its status of the UN host nation and denies visas both to members of the Russian delegation and those who accompany it for the participation in the United Nations events." "This time, the ‘victims’ of the United States’ visa ‘repressions’ are Russian journalists," he added.

"Naturally, this is a flagrant violation of the freedom of speech, the West is no fond of talking about, yet another boorish move against Russian representatives. <…> Anyway, I am sure that this incident will not remain unanswered by the Russian side," Slutsky said.