MOSCOW, October 6. /TASS/. Moscow insists that UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres initiate an arbitration hearing over the United States' failure to issue visas to Russian representatives to attend UN events, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin said at a press conference, summing up the results of the Russian delegation’s participation in the High-Level Week of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly.

"The Americans abuse their position as the host country for the UN central bodies. They violate the agreements with the United Nations in terms of ensuring the normal functioning of UN institutions headquartered in New York," Vershinin said. "We are urging the UN Secretary General to launch arbitration."

In previous years, representatives of the Russian media were granted media (I) visas. This year, the US consulate issued diplomatic transit (C2) visas which allow traveling "in immediate and continuous transit through the United States to or from the United Nations Headquarters District." In fact, this means that travel within the United States is limited for Russian journalists, who are unable to visit, for example, Washington to do an interview.