OREANDA-NEWS. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Ryabkov spoke in an interview with International Life magazine about the visa war between Russia and the United States. "Regarding whether we will arrange a visa war. You know, this war is ongoing, and the United States unleashed it", he said.

“We have had great difficulties for a long time sending our embassies and consulate generals to the United States on long business trips. We have big problems with arranging staff for short-term business trips”, he explained. “We answer in a mirror way: it’s difficult for Americans to solve their problems we know about this. We invite the Americans to come to an agreement, and not act on the principle of "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth", but so far it does not work. Apparently, those who shape Russian politics in the USA have different priorities".

Ryabkov also noted that the reaction of the UN Secretariat to the refusal of American visas to a number of members of the Russian delegation at the 74th session of the General Assembly should have been more intelligible. "The reaction of the UN Secretariat, in my opinion, could be more intelligible to what happened", the senior diplomat said, noting that Washington had set a new anti-record in terms of its own positioning in the international arena.

According to him, the refusal to issue visas was an alarming bell in terms of what the United States can afford in relation to the UN. “There is a special committee called the committee for relations with the party of the stay. We will be raising this issue there sharply”, Ryabkov emphasized. “This is a new quality of neglecting any norms”.

As Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier, a number of representatives of the Russian delegation to the UN General Assembly didn't issue an American visa. Among them are Konstantin Kosachev, head of the Federation Council’s committee on international affairs, Leonid Slutsky, head of the State Duma’s international affairs committee, Dmitry Rogozin, general director of Roscosmos, and 10 Russian Foreign Ministry employees.