There was no immediate comment from the U.S. State Department about the claim of refused visas…reports Asian Lite News
Russia has said that the United States has denied visas to journalists who wanted to cover Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s trip to New York, and Lavrov suggested that Moscow would take strong retaliatory measures.
There was no immediate comment from the U.S. State Department about the claim of refused visas. The journalists aimed to cover Lavrov’s appearance at the United Nations to mark Russia’s chairmanship of the Security Council.
“A country that calls itself the strongest, smartest, free and fair country has chickened out and done something stupid by showing what its sworn assurances about protecting freedom of speech and access to information are really worth,” Lavrov said before leaving Moscow on Sunday.
“Be sure that we will not forget and will not forgive,” he said.
“I emphasize that we will find ways to respond to this, so that the Americans will remember for a long time not to do this,” deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said.
The dispute comes in the wake of high tensions with Washington over the arrest last month of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, whom Russia accuses of espionage. The United States has declared him to be “wrongfully detained.”
Many Western journalists stationed in Moscow left the country after Russia sent troops into Ukraine. Russia currently requires foreign journalists to renew their visas and accreditation every three months, compared to once a year before the fighting began.
Kremlin spokesman’s son served with Wagner Group
Nikolai Peskov, the 33-year-old son of Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, said that he served with Russian mercenary Wagner Group in Ukraine for six months under a false ID with a different last name, according to media reports.
Nikolai made the revelation on Sunday during an interview with the pro-Kremlin daily Komsomolskaya Pravda, the BBC reported.
“I considered it my duty… I couldn’t sit on the sidelines and watch friends and other people go there… When I went there, I had to change my last name. Nobody really knew who I was,” Nikolai, who speaks fluent English having spent several years as a youth in London, said.
He has worked as a correspondent for Russian state broadcaster RT and both the father-son duo are currently under US sanctions.
Nikolai told the Russian daily that it was his own decision to join Wagner, but he did not know how to do it, “so I had to turn to my dad… and he helped me with that”.
He said he used a false ID so that his Wagner comrades would not learn of his Kremlin connections.
He however, did not reveal that assumed name in the interview because, he might need to use it again.
Nikolai’s interview comes after the Wagner chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said on Friday that the Kremlin spokesman’s son had served as a gunner with his mercenary force, CNN reported.
Prigozhin did not specify what period of time he was talking about.
According to Prigozhin, Nikolai Peskov served in PMC Wagner for six months under false documents with a different last name, working as a loader of an ammunition supply vehicle.
The Wagner chief said he attended a three-week training at their base in Molkino and later “left for Luhansk”. According to Prigozhin, Dmitry Peskov had asked him to “take (Nikolai) on as a simple artilleryman”.