Russia will keep in mind the situation with the non-issuance of visas to Russian journalists when Washington needs something from Moscow. This was stated on April 25 by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at a press conference.
“As for our response, we will definitely keep in mind such dishonorable behavior of the American leadership, the State Department, as I understand it, a decision was made there, and we will take this into account when the Americans need something from us,” he said.
According to the diplomat, the West is uncomfortable with the existence of alternative points of view and the opportunity for citizens of other countries to gain access to facts that contradict Western narratives.
Earlier Tuesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called Washington’s refusal to issue visas to journalists who were supposed to accompany Lavrov on a business trip to the United States a performance.
She called the statement by White House strategic communications coordinator John Kirby about the reasons for not issuing visas to Russian journalists cynical.
The day before, he tried to explain the refusal to journalists from the Lavrov pool in obtaining visas. According to him, the refusal is connected with the alleged propaganda activities of the Russian state media.
On April 23, 40 minutes before the departure of the Russian delegation to New York, Lavrov said that the journalists who were supposed to accompany him had not received visas. At the same time, it became known that after the delegation’s plane took off, the United States Embassy in Moscow notified of its readiness to issue visas. The head of the Russian Foreign Ministry called this notice mocking.
On the same day, Zakharova announced that Russian journalists were not being issued US visas to travel to a meeting of the UN Security Council. She added that the US Embassy in Russia is working to resolve this situation.
