Russia Lashes Out at U.S. as Visa Dispute at UN Fuels Tensions

(Bloomberg) -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov lashed out at the U.S. and its allies as a dispute over Washington’s refusal to issue some visas for officials from Russia attending the United Nations General Assembly fueled tensions between the former Cold War enemies.

Lavrov said he raised the issue with Secretary of State Michael Pompeo on Friday after a dozen members of Russia’s delegation didn’t receive U.S. visas, mirroring treatment handed to Iran.

The top Russian diplomat has warned of unspecified retaliation and questioned the location of the world body’s headquarters because of the U.S. violation of its obligations to offer unhindered access to the UN. He accused unnamed U.S. officials of sabotaging efforts by President Donald Trump to improve ties with Russia -- and avoided blaming the president directly for the visa disagreement.

“I don’t have the slightest doubt that neither President Trump nor Secretary of State Pompeo had anything to with this, which Mike Pompeo confirmed to me,” Lavrov told reporters in New York. Earlier this week, Lavrov blamed the visa refusals on “a bureaucracy which was bred on anti-Sovietism and now Russophobia, and which wants to block any positive signals coming from the White House about the need to build normal relations with Russia.”

The controversy comes after the dismissal of U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton, a move cheered in Moscow. Bolton was seen as a longtime skeptic of Trump’s goal of improving relations with the Kremlin and a critic of arms-control agreements that Moscow fought to preserve. But Congress and many administration officials remain hostile to the U.S. president’s outreach to the Russian strongman.

The U.S. and Russia remain at odds over a range of issues, from arms control, Kremlin support for allies in Syria and Venezuela to the American policy of ”maximum pressure” on Iran.

In his speech to the UN General Assembly on Friday, Lavrov accused Western nations of trying to impose their values on the rest of the world and ignoring the multilateral global order.

He attacked the U.S. for not only exiting the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal but threatening other nations with sanctions to prevent them from continuing to abide by it, warning that American actions are “destructive” for non-proliferation and the stability of the region.

Lavrov also criticized Washington for its failure so far to enter into talks on extending New START, which restricts the size of the U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals and expires in 2021. And he urged the U.S. to join in a Russian pledge not to deploy intermediate-range missiles in Europe after its February pull-out from a 1987 treaty that banned such weapons on the European continent.

President Vladimir Putin “announced the intention not to deploy short and medium-range land-based missiles in Europe and other regions as long as Americans don’t,” Lavrov said. “We urged the U.S. and NATO to join in this moratorium. The response of to all these proposals from the U.S. and its allies so far hasn’t been encouraging.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Henry Meyer in New York at hmeyer4@bloomberg.net;Nick Wadhams in New York at nwadhams@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Gregory L. White at gwhite64@bloomberg.net, Bill Faries

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