The State Department granted a Russian delegation led by foreign minister Sergei Lavrov 24 of the 56 visas it had requested to attend the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Reuters reported:
The United States has given Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov a visa to travel to New York for the United Nations’ annual gathering of world leaders next week with half the delegation Moscow requested, a Russian diplomatic source said on Tuesday.
Moscow had asked Washington for 56 visas, according to a Sept. 2 letter to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres from Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia. The Russian diplomatic source said on Tuesday the United States had approved 24 visas.
Nebenzia had also noted in his letter that the flight crew for Lavrov’s plane had not received visas. It was not immediately clear if Washington had granted visas for the Russian flight crew or if Lavrov would be expected to fly commercial airlines to New York.
Prior to the State Department’s issuing the visas, Lavrov had complained that Washington was not behaving correctly.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov alleged that the U.S. has violated its obligations as the United Nations’ host country by denying the other Russian officials visas, according to a state media report. Peskov added that the foreign ministry “is taking certain steps” in response.