Russia’s Foreign Minister Lavrov unable to attend UN meeting due to sanctions

Yevropeyska Pravda— MONDAY, 28 February 2022, 08:35 AM

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov will not attend a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva due to new travel requirements resulting from sanctions against Russia. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined to provide documents necessary to enable his participation.

This was stated by the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, in a broadcast on Russia-1 TV channel.

Zakharova was outraged by the new sanctions imposed on Russia by European states. "This is nonsense! Documents? Rules? Instructions? What is this all about?", she said.

The issue arose as a result of air travel sanctions imposed on Russia by the European Union, which has closed its skies to all Russian-owned and -operated aircraft. Lavrov intended to fly to Geneva on a Russian government plane. Zakharova explained that the Russian delegation was requested "to provide some kind of documents which will now be devised by EU countries for flights under sanctions."

Russia will not abide by the rules under new sanctions.

"It is the responsibility of the United Nations and of the receiving country to ensure the work of the Member States, particularly in a crisis," said Zakharova.

As reported earlier, the EU and others such as Canada had closed their skies for all commercial and charter flights by Russian aircraft.

There are also talks of limiting Russia’s powers within the United Nations.

More on the sanctions here.