MOSCOW, April 28. /TASS/. The Russian Foreign Ministry on Friday laid into Slovakia for denying visas to Russian experts planning to undergo training organized by the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization.
The On-Site Inspection Training Introductory Course, which was organized by the organization’s Preparatory Commission, started on April 24, the ministry said in a statement.
"All Russian experts were denied visas," the ministry said. "We believe these actions by Bratislava don’t comply with the approaches adopted in multilateral diplomacy and are unfriendly and politically motivated and in gross violation of the commitments before the Preparatory Commission of the CTBT."
The ministry said Slovakia was at fault for disrupting the training course and called on the CTBT to refrain from holding any future events in that country.
The ministry said Slovakia is bound by an agreement with the CTBT to issue visas to all participants of any CTBT courses and workshops on its territory and provide access to these events. Russia planned to dispatch four experts to the training, who applied for visas to Slovak consular offices in the countries that border Slovakia, the ministry said.