"A statement shifting the blame for initiating a ‘visa war’ on Russia is still posted on the website of the US embassy in Moscow. There were and are no grounds for such false attacks on us. … We stress that US authorities have been consistently restricting the entry of our official representatives and disrupting crucial negotiating formats," the Russian embassy said in a Facebook statement.
A delegation of the Russian Treasury that was supposed to arrive in Washington on Tuesday, did not receive visas, the Russian embassy said.
"Thus, very recently, a delegation of our Federal Treasury that was supposed to arrive in Washington on December 3 to participate in the conference of the International Institute on Audit Regulation did not get visas," the embassy said in its statement.
According to the release, Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Department for Relations with Compatriots Abroad (DRCA) Oleg Malginov was prevented from taking part in a youth forum in the United States last week.
"The [US] State Department also prevented Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Department for Relations with Compatriots Abroad O. S. Malginov from attending the Youth forum in New York on November 28-29 2019," the embassy said.
The embassy also pointed out that the United States had still not explained why some members of the Russian delegation to the UN General Assembly in September were denied visas.
"In violation of its own obligations, the United States created obstacles to the participation of the Russian side in the meetings of the First and Third Committees of the UN General Assembly. To a large extent, their substantive work was disrupted. It is noteworthy that not only the Russian delegation suffered: representatives of other countries did not receive visas either. Essentially, Washington has started to determine who can (should) represent a particular country," the Russian embassy said.
The embassy warned that such actions on the part of the United States lead to a degradation of US-Russian relations that are already complicated and contradict Washington’s calls for the normalization of ties with Moscow.
