Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Sunday that his country "will not forgive" the United States for refusing to grant visas to Russian journalists accompanying him on Monday and Tuesday on his visit to the United Nations.

"We will not forget and we will not forgive," Lavrov said before heading to New York , denouncing Washington's decision, describing it as "ridiculous" and "cowardly."
Russia assumed the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council in April, despite its invasion of Ukraine, which it considered a "slap in the face".

"A country that considers itself the strongest, smartest, freest and fairest is cowardly," Lavrov said, sarcastically noting that this "shows what the value of their statements about freedom of expression is."

Since the start of the attack, Moscow has tightened the conditions for obtaining the necessary credits to obtain journalist visas in Russia.
For his part, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov warned of further retaliatory measures.

"We will find ways to respond to this so that Americans will remember for a long time that these things should not be done," he was quoted by government news agencies as saying.

Likewise, the RIA Novosti news agency quoted a diplomatic source as saying that after this incident, "American journalists will suffer harassment and trouble."

And last month, the American journalist Ivan Gershkovich was arrested in Russia on charges of espionage, but the latter, the newspaper in which he works, and officials strongly denied this.

Gershkovitch, who also worked for AFP, is the first foreign journalist to be arrested on espionage charges since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

RIA Novosti quoted the diplomatic source as saying that the visa incident proves Washington's "imaginary concern" for Gershkovitch, explaining, "Otherwise, they would not have treated Russian journalists in this way."