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Russia asks UN to move matter of non-issuance of US visas to arbitration — source

A Russian diplomatic source said that the UN secretary general will make a decision on this matter

THE UNITED NATIONS, February 26. /TASS/. Russia has directly addressed the United Nations with a request to move to arbitration the matter of non-issuance of US visas to Russian delegates, a Russian diplomatic source told TASS on Tuesday after the session of the UN Committee on Relations with the Host Country.

"In accordance with the relevant UN General Assembly resolution, the definition of the 'certain time period' was set that needs to pass before a case moves to arbitration. A Russian representative said that this time period has passed, and it is necessary to move to arbitration," the source said. "A UN representative said that he will report this to the secretary general, and then he [secretary general] will make a decision," the source added.

At the session of the UN Committee on Relations with the Host Country, Russia's Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Gennady Kuzmin directly asked the US representative whether the head of the Russian delegation to the session of the UN Disarmament Commission Konstantin Vorontsov will be issued a visa. The session was postponed for 10 days and is scheduled for February 27. "The US representative did not say anything substantial and did not provide any guarantees," the source noted.

Since the start of the 74th session of the UN General Assembly, more than 20 Russian delegates have not been issued US visas. In December 2019, the UN General Assembly called on the United States to issue visas on time to delegates from several countries, including Russia, Iran and Venezuela.