OREANDA-NEWS The United States has begun issuing visas to the Russian delegation headed by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to attend meetings of the UN Security Council, the Foreign Ministry said.

"There is a deadlock with the issuance of visas for Russian journalists who should cover the work of our delegation to the UN Security Council," the ministry said.

In April, Russia is chairing the United Nations Security Council. Lavrov is expected to attend the meetings on April 24 and 25. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov pointed out the problem with issuing visas to the Russian delegation during the week. The American side argued for delaying the process by interdepartmental approvals. Russian diplomats have been facing difficulties for many years in obtaining visas, primarily American ones, to work in various bodies of the World Organization.

At the end of March, the first deputy Permanent Representative of Russia, Dmitry Polyansky, said that Moscow was counting on the speedy launch of arbitration proceedings against the United States to solve this problem. According to him, the volume of violations of the host country agreement not only in relation to Russia, but also in relation to other states is quite sufficient.