Vasili Nebenzia said in a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres obtained Friday night by The Associated Press that “this is all the more troubling since in recent months United States authorities have consistently denied entry visas to many of Russian delegates assigned to participate in official United Nations events.” The Russian ambassador stressed that the United States, as the host country of the United Nations, is legally required to issue visas, adding that the application to participate in the high-level UN meetings starting on September 19 has been submitted to the US Embassy in Moscow. Nebenzia asked Guterres to “stress once again to the United States authorities that they must immediately issue visas to all Russian delegates and entourages,” including journalists covering Lavrov’s visit. Already poor relations between the United States and Russia have worsened dramatically since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. The Biden administration sees Russia and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine as the most acute and immediate threat to international stability and leads an international coalition supporting Ukraine. A spokesman for the US mission to the United Nations said the United States takes host country obligations seriously and processes “hundreds of visas each year for representatives of the Russian Federation at UN events.” “To ensure timely processing, we repeatedly remind the Russian mission to the UN, as well as all other UN missions, that the United States needs applications as early as possible,” said the spokesman, who was not authorized to be quoted. nominally. “This is particularly important,” the US spokesman said, “because of Russia’s unwarranted actions against our embassy in Russia, including the forced dismissal of local and national staff from third countries, which have severely reduced our staff and as a result our ability to process visas. “ In his letter, Nebenzia said that among the latest examples of the US denying entry visas were to Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev to attend the just-ended UN summit of police chiefs and to Russian representatives seeking to attend a meeting that started on 29 August and continues until 9 September to draw up an “International Convention to Combat the Use of Information and Communication Technologies for Criminal Purposes”. The Russian ambassador quoted from the 1947 agreement between the United Nations and the United States, which states that “visas shall be granted free of charge and as soon as possible” and that this “shall apply regardless of the relations existing between the governments of persons. the United States government is also mentioned.” Associate UN representative Florencia Soto Nino-Martinez said the UN remains in close contact with the US on issues under the UN-US headquarters agreement, including visas, and “we are doing it in this case” that Russia touched. Our Morning Update and Afternoon Update newsletters are written by Globe editors, giving you a concise summary of the day’s most important headlines. Sign up today.
