The United States has not issued visas for delegates from the Russian Federal Treasury who planned to take part in the international conference on auditing on December 3, the press service of the Russian Embassy in Washington said in a comment.
"Just recently, the delegation of the Federal Treasury has not received visas as it was scheduled to arrive in Washington on December 3 to take part in the conference of the International Institute on Audit Regulation. The U.S. Department of State also prevented head of the Russian Foreign Ministry's department on working with compatriots abroad Oleg Malginov from attending the Youth Forum in New York on November 28-29," the press service said.
"Excuses distributed by the U.S. Embassy in Moscow about 'lack of consular officers' in an attempt to justify the long processes of receiving U.S. visas for Russian citizens, are also untrue," the press service added.
"The U.S. Embassy in Moscow still has a statement on its website that shifts blame for starting a 'visa war' to Russia," the press service continued. "There are no grounds for such false accusations. Americans have once again turned everything upside down," the press service stressed, adding that the U.S. authorities "have consistently prevented Russian officials from entering the U.S. and undermined important negotiations formats.
"We still have not received responses to our requests about non-issuance of visas to delegates that accompanied Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to the UN General Assembly session in September," the press service said. "In violation of their own obligations, the U.S. created obstacles for participation of the Russian side in the sessions of the UN GA's First and Third Committees," the embassy noted.
"Such actions of the U.S. authorities lead to further degradation of already tense relations between the two countries and run counter to the statements made by the U.S. Administration about the importance of normalizing them," the press service said. "We expect the U.S. side to give up this faulty visa practice. Deleting the 'information' on the website of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow that confuses Russian citizens would be a good signal," the press service added.
"We suggest that American colleagues stop adding firewood to the fire of hostility. It is important to let the potential for cooperation between our peoples and countries to develop," the press service stressed.
The senior research fellow at the European Research Centre of the International Relations Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladimir Olenchenko, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that the State Department’s barriers to participants pf international events held on American territory undermine U.S. authority as a venue for conferences and forums. "When the United States was elected as the headquarters of various international organizations, it was assumed that access to them would be easy, and the request for entry would be formal. People who participate in international forums do not go to the United States, but to the organization, "whose headquarters are located on American territory. Now there is an unhealthy situation when the United States assumes the right to regulate the activities of international organizations and foreign citizens participating in them," he said.
"Even an uninitiated person understands that it is a glaring contradiction of international law and the agreements on the American territory's role in the location of international organizations that were reached decades ago. Therefore, I think that it has become too difficult for the U.S. to host so many international forums, and it’s worth relieving their worries by redistributing the headquarters of international organizations to other countries," Vladimir Olenchenko stressed.
