One more Russian diplomat supposed to attend a United Nations event denied a US visa, Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya alleged on 21 Feb 20. Georgy Mikhno, a deputy director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Department for New Challenges and Threats, was to attend a UN meeting on counter-terrorism efforts organized at Russia’s initiative. His absence here is yet another instance when the host country fails to implement its visa commitments under the agreement on the headquarters of the United Nations, Nebenzya commented. Such actions do serious harm to the United States’ reputation, and to international counter-terrorism efforts.
Earlier in February, Konstantin Vorontsov, head of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s multilateral disarmament department who was to lead Russia’s delegation to the United Nations Disarmament Commission’s session, failed to obtain a US visa in due time and the commission’s session was postponed for ten days. Since the start of the 74th session of the UN General Assembly, as many as 18 Russian delegates skip UN events because the US failed to issue entry visas in due time.
In December 2019, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution calling on the US to stop the practice of visa issuance delays to diplomats from a number of nations, including Russia, Venezuela, and Iran.
