MOSCOW. Sept 24 (Interfax) - State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Leonid Slutsky considers the non-issuance of U.S. visas to members of the Russian delegation to the UN General Assembly session in New York as a refusal.
"No formal reason has been given. We say we have been refused [visas] because the delegation led by [Russian Foreign Minister] Sergei Lavrov has already departed," he said live on the television channel Rossiya 24 (VGTRK) on Tuesday.
Slutsky said both he and Federation Council Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Konstantin Kosachyov were refused visas. "Just like ten colleagues from the Foreign Ministry, including a close associate of Lavrov, Butin," he said.
"Perhaps the visas will be issued, or perhaps they will claim technical delays but you and I understand that these arguments mean absolutely nothing. This is an intentional, deliberate provocation, and a knowing disregard of international obligations by the Department of State," Slutsky said.