Sergey Lavrov is expected at the US headquarters of the UN to assume the rotating presidency of the Security Council. The Russian Foreign Minister joked that the United States had thus demonstrated what its statements on freedom of expression were worth.
This new episode of tensions between Washington and Moscow comes three weeks after the arrest in Russia of Evan Gershkovich, correspondent of the Wall Street Journal. Russian authorities accuse him of espionage, which the American financial daily and the journalist categorically deny. He was outraged that Washington had not issued visas to the Russian journalists supposed to accompany it.