The Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the UN in New York. Photo credit: Gryffindor / en.wikipedia.org (CC BY-SA 3.0)
UN Secretary General António Guteres should launch the arbitration procedure, said Sergey Leonidchenko, an employee of the Russian permanent mission to the UN. In his opinion, this is the only way to find a solution to the issue of Washington's refusal to issue visas to Russian diplomats, RIA Novosti reports. He recalled that the Russian delegation has not yet been able to obtain American visas to join the UN General Assembly session.
The diplomat spoke at a meeting of the UN committee on relations with the host country.
Leonidchenko noted that the arbitration procedure should be started as soon as possible. Everything else is just an imitation of the resolution of problems, although in fact the situation continues to worsen, he pointed out.
The authorities of the United States, the diplomat emphasized, are not fulfilling their obligations as a host country to the UN headquarters. Russian employees of the UN headquaters are subject to visa discrimination by the United States. Both new employees and Russians who already work in UN structures are refused visas, the diplomat noted.
Due to the lack of American visas, Russian delegations were either completely absent or understaffed at almost all UN events, Leonidchenko summed up.
Russkiy Mir
