The Russian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that the US failure to provide visas to Russians, who were to attend the United Nations General Assembly, was an act of disrespect.
The ministry has also refuted claims that the Russians who will now miss the assembly, have failed to provide documents for visas timely.
"The US side refers to a technical problem, to the deadline for submitting documents. This is not true. Documents have been submitted under a deadline provided by US diplomats. The documents that have been submitted earlier, a couple of months prior to the travel, have been returned, it has been said that the documents have been submitted too early," the Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova told reporters.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will focus on the matter during his talks with US State Secretary Mike Pompeo, Zakharova added.
"This is an indignant example of US disrespect for UN member states and of its failure to fulfill commitments of a hosting nation ... This new example of neglecting the rights of sovereign states and international organizations and inability to at least to some extent properly fulfill international legal commitments will be a key topic at Lavrov-Pompeo talks in New York," Zakharova stressed.
Earlier, Konstantin Kosachev, the chairman of the Russian upper house's foreign affairs committee, said he had failed to receive a US visa in due time and would, therefore, miss the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.
"Violating its commitments to the international community, the US side has failed to provide in due time visas to a range of members of the official delegation, including me, and a group of accompanying persons, who intended to travel to New York today for participating in the 74th session of the UNGA. This is an indignant, unexplainable and unjustifiable step," Kosachev said.
New York is hosting the 74th session of the UNGA from September 24-30. Lavrov is expected to hold dozens of meetings with heads of states and governments, and foreign ministers on the UNGA sidelines, and also to take part in meetings of the UN Security Council and multilateral and regional negotiations of foreign ministers.
