Director of the Franklin Roosevelt Foundation for the Study of the United States (Moscow State University) Yuri Rogulev on Friday, December 24, in an interview with Izvestia, assessed the call for the United Nations to launch an arbitration tribunal against the United States due to the non-issuance of visas to the Russian Federation and the seizure of diplomatic property.
“On the one hand, the UN, of course, can intervene. There are international rules, a UN charter, and there are obligations of the host country (USA). But, on the other hand, do not forget that the UN headquarters is located in the United States. Washington allocated a territory for this, built a building. And this, of course, creates a difficult relationship between the international structure and the “owners”. So the UN’s possibilities are not unlimited, ”he said.
According to the Americanist, the existing diplomatic crisis between the US and the Russian Federation will develop “depending on the general agreement.” Rogulev emphasized that UN officials are caught in the same “millstones of confrontation” between Washington and Moscow as diplomats working in the embassy and consulates. The expert pointed out that at the moment there is a policy of reducing the trains.
“At the same time, this issue is exclusively political in nature. It all depends on the agreement of the presidents. If they agree, then this issue can be resolved even tomorrow, ”the political scientist concluded.
According to a member of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs Maria Butina, the intervention of a third party in the person of the UN in the situation with the non-issuance of visas by the United States of America can give a positive impetus to resolve the issue.
Earlier that day, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Russia had called on the UN to launch an arbitration tribunal against the United States due to delays in the issuance of visas and the seizure of diplomatic property.
In 2016, the administration of former US President Barack Obama adopted a package of anti-Russian sanctions. As a result, the United States, in particular, closed access to two residential complexes of the Russian Permanent Mission in New York and the Russian Embassy in Washington, which are Russian diplomatic property.
Also, the White House decided to expel dozens of Russian diplomats and to close the consulates in San Francisco and Seattle, the Russian trade mission in Washington and a number of other buildings that are Russian diplomatic property. Moscow responded with countermeasures.
On December 13, in an interview with Izvestia, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Moscow would like to hold consultations with Washington on the situation with diplomatic missions and the issuance of visas. According to him, Russia is ready to organize these consultations as quickly as possible – by the end of 2021, immediately after receiving a response from Washington on this issue.
On November 25, Zakharova noted that the normalization of relations with the United States is impossible without resolving the issue of Russia’s diplomatic property.
