The US State Department has set an unwelcome record: for the fifth consecutive time, it has denied me a visa as a member of the Russian delegation traveling to the UN General Assembly’s High-Level Week. Once again, no reason was given.
According to the Foreign Ministry, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alimov—who oversees UN affairs at the ministry and was scheduled to attend General Assembly events during this period—also failed to receive a US visa. All these “visa wars” and the “inertia of the Biden administration’s approach” represent a flagrant violation by the United States of its international obligations as the host country of the UN headquarters.
In doing so, Washington is cynically using visa restrictions to interfere with the work of the UN General Assembly and, in effect, to engage in political discrimination. Russia has repeatedly drawn the UN Secretariat’s attention to the unacceptability of “visa reprisals” against members of national delegations. I am certain that a strong demarche is in order this time as well.
