US Delaying Issuing Visas To Russian Diplomats, Hindering Russia's Consular Work - Moscow

The United States is delaying issuing visas to Russian diplomats, knowingly hindering the work of Russia's consular and diplomatic agencies, Maria Zakharova, the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said Wednesday.

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th October, 2018) The United States is delaying issuing visas to Russian diplomats, knowingly hindering the work of Russia's consular and diplomatic agencies, Maria Zakharova, the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said Wednesday.

"The US authorities are knowingly impeding the regular work of the Russian diplomatic and consular offices. They do it for months in a row; in some cases, for longer than a year, by delaying the issuance of permissions to entry for new staff members," Zakharova said.

The ministry spokeswoman added that direct refusals to grant visas had also become quite frequent.

"This applies to the Russian Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York as well, although, according to the agreement on the location of this organization's headquarters in the United States, Washington committed to ensure that there are no obstacles to the functioning of the organization itself and the accredited missions of foreign states," Zakharova said.

The foreign ministry spokeswoman stressed that Washington was "blatantly abusing" the "privilege" of having the UN headquarters in the United States.