MOSCOW. Sept 24 (Interfax) - State Duma Deputy Speaker Pyotr Tolstoy has suggested that U.S. embassy workers who denied visas to some members of the Russian delegation to the UN General Assembly session be replaced.
"This [denial of visas to members of national delegations to the United Nations] is a breach of the international obligations the United States assumed when it signed the agreement on hosting the UN Headquarters. That is for starters. Secondly, Russia's response must be as harsh as possible. We should remind our U.S. partners that this is not about a visit to the United States but about attendance of a session of the General Assembly, which is a completely different thing," Tolstoy told the press on Tuesday.
"If they do not realize that, I think that some of the employees of the U.S. embassy to Russia should be replaced with those who are aware of these technicalities. And this is a question of accreditation [of U.S. diplomats in Russia]," Tolstoy said.