Last December, the United States denied Russian UN personnel all requests to travel beyond 25 miles from the organization’s headquarters. This was announced by Sergei Leonidchenko, head of the legal reference office of the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the UN.
Leonidchenko noted that the notification procedure for such trips had been arbitrarily changed to a permissive one. After that, Russian employees began to be denied such trips without explanation. He added that it was no longer a permissive order, but rather a prohibitive order. Travel restrictions are only applied by the United States to certain state missions, which is discriminatory.
Leonidchenko also said Moscow is waiting for UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ reaction to the current situation with travel denials and is taking steps to reverse that decision.
In addition, Leonidchenko recalled that the United States did not provide Russian Deputy Labor Minister Alexei Vovchenko with a visa for UN events. He pointed out that the United States is required to issue visas for UN events in accordance with the headquarters agreement.
