Washington delays issuing visas to Russian officials in a blatant attempt to force them out of their UN positions, the Russian Foreign Ministry has said, adding that the UN Secretary General simply shuts his eyes to this problem.

Russia and the US have been engaged in a heated visa dispute for several months already. Moscow says that the Russian officials scheduled to take up their posts at the UN headquarters in New York, and particularly at the UN Secretariat, can’t assume their duties because Washington is delaying their application processes for an indefinite period.

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Those Russians already working at the UN are forced to quit their jobs as their American visas are not extended, the foreign ministry said, labeling such actions as nothing less than “sabotage.” According to the ministry, the Russian military officials, who were appointed to their positions within the relevant departments of the Secretariat by the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres himself, “have to wait for their US visas for months” and sometimes even for “more than a year.”

Americans exploit this sort of ‘administrative pressure’ in their ‘unfair competition’ to force Russians from certain posts and putting their own military into these positions.

In its Wednesday statement, the ministry also slammed Guterres for his supposed inaction in the face of the American malpractice, by accusing him of “clearly turning a blind eye” to the violation by the US of the UN Charter.

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The visa debate has added further strain to the already rocky relations between Moscow and Washington. Yet, no progress in resolving this issue has been made so far. Earlier, in December, Moscow’s envoy to the UN Vasily Nebenzya raised this issue with US President Donald Trump, as he was being given a tour of the White House. Trump said that he was not aware of the situation and vowed to “deal with it.”

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