Today, Sunday, Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, left sharp criticism of the United States, after Washington had He refused to grant visas to the Russian journalists who were supposed to accompany Lavrov On his diplomatic trip to New York to preside over a series of meetings of the United Nations Security Council.
“We will not forget and we will not forgive this,” Lavrov said. Quoted by Agence France-Presse.
In the opinion of the head of Russian diplomacy, the American position represents a “stupid” failure on the part of the United States, “A country that calls itself the strongest, the smartest, the freedom and the fairAnd who is now “afraid.” For Lavrov, the US refusal to issue visas “shows the value of official guarantees of freedom of expression.”
In early April, Russia assumed the presidency of the United Nations Security Council, which drew harsh criticism from Ukraine.
This situation adds to a climate of growing tension between the United States and Russia over the presence of journalists from both countries in each other’s territory. In late March, Russian authorities arrested American journalist Ivan Gershkovitch, the Wall Street Journal’s correspondent in Moscow, accusing him of espionage.
At the same time, according to AFP, Russia has also tightened the criteria for accepting foreign journalists into the country.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has already arrived to assure that Moscow will retaliate. “We’re going to find ways to respond to this so Americans will remember for a long time that these kinds of things can’t happen,” he said.
According to Agence France-Presse, a Russian diplomatic source told the Russian RIA Novosti agency:American journalists will suffer all the inconvenience and inconvenience“.
