2023-04-23 21:01:42
Russia “will not forgive” the United States for refusing to grant visas to Russian journalists who will accompany Foreign Minister Serguei Lavrov on a trip to the UN in the coming days, the head of Russian diplomacy said on Sunday.
“We will not forget, we will not forgive,” Lavrov told reporters, accusing Washington of making a “cowardly” decision.
This month Russia occupies the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council, at a time when it is being repudiated by the international community for its invasion of Ukraine.
“A country that claims to be the smartest, strongest, freest, fairest, ‘cooped up’ and even did something stupid”, criticized Lavrov, mocking the fact that the United States of America (USA) having refused to grant visas to Russian journalists, demonstrating, in his opinion, “the value of their declarations on freedom of expression”.
One of his deputy ministers, Serguei Riabkov, had already said today that despite “the various contacts in recent days” on the initiative of Moscow, Washington “did not grant visas” to “journalists registered to accompany Lavrov on his trip” to New York, where he is located. the headquarters of the United Nations.
Riabkov criticized “a scandalous and absolutely unacceptable method” on the part of the Americans, pointing out the mocking attitude of the USA, “which pretends to work” to “find a solution”.
“We will find ways to respond to this so that Americans will remember for a long time that this is not done. They will remember,” she added.
A diplomatic source, quoted by the Russian news agency Ria Novosti, said in retaliation that “there is no doubt that American journalists (in Russia) will be aware of all the ‘discomfort and inconvenience’ and a similar attitude” on the part of the Russian authorities.
Lavrov’s visit to the UN on Monday and Tuesday will focus on issues such as the grain deal or “true multilateralism” as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues.
Lavrov will travel to New York as part of the Russian presidency of the UN Security Council and will preside over two debates, on multilateralism and the Middle East.
The head of Russian diplomacy will also have the opportunity to discuss directly with the UN secretary general, António Guterres, the continuity of the Black Sea cereal agreement and Moscow’s dissatisfaction with the lack of compliance with certain aspects of the initiative, according to the official. Russian Ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, whose country invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
According to Nebenzya, a conversation with Guterres regarding the continuity of the cereals agreement “is also due”, at a time when Russia admits not to extend the agreement, if there is no progress in fulfilling commitments within the framework of the memorandum between Moscow and the UN, namely on the export of Russian cereals and fertilizers.
Still on Lavrov’s trip to the United States, Nebenzya did not rule out a meeting between the Russian minister and the US authorities, if the latter so request, but guaranteed that nothing has been scheduled so far.
Russia, one of the five permanent members of the Security Council and with veto power, assumed this month the rotating presidency of the body, which has the capacity to pass binding resolutions.
The Russian presidency comes at a time when the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, has an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes, namely alleged kidnappings of children in Ukraine, crimes that Russian diplomacy at the UN imputed to countries like Portugal.
In March, Ukraine’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Sergiy Kyslytsya, publicly appealed to the organization not to allow the Russian presidency, but always without success. Since he failed to stop the Russian presidency, Kyslytsya now hopes that Guterres will use his meeting with Lavrov to “reaffirm” his position personally.
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