MOSCOW, October 9. /TASS/. Moscow views it as unacceptable that Washington has not issued visas to some Russian delegates for the High-level Week of the 79th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA 79), Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin said at a post-event news conference.
"Attending such events in the US is a pain, because there are never-ending problems with obtaining visas. All that, by the way, violates those agreements and regulations concerning the attitude of the country hosting the UN central bodies towards UN member countries - unfortunately, Washington tries to use this [its position as the host country] in order to pursue its political purposes," he said. "I am referring specifically to such logistical issues, visa issues. We find this unacceptable."
"This time, I can confirm that visas were not given to a member of the Russian official delegation, Chairman of the International Committee of the Russian State Duma (lower house of parliament) Leonid Slutsky, and some other people," the deputy foreign minister added.
As Vershinin noted, not all Russian representatives have received visas to attend the First Committee of the General Assembly. "We continue talking about this persistently and actively in the Committee on Relations with the Host Country," he emphasized. "And finally, we raise the main issue - the need for arbitration, which is, once again, provided by the very US-UN agreement I spoke about."