The United States denied visas for Russian journalists who wanted to cover the trip of Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to New York. With that denial comes Lavrov’s statement that Moscow will retaliate.

“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.

Lavrov: Not Forgiving

“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.

Another condemnation

The Russian Foreign Minister also condemned on Thursday US sanctions against Cuba as he visited the island during the last leg of a Latin American tour that took him to Brazil, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.

Lavrov met with his Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodríguez, kicking off the visit by taking part in a wreath-laying ceremony at a memorial in Havana for Cuban independence hero José Martí.

During his visit to the island nation, which for decades was a staunch Moscow ally, Lavrov condemned the American economic sanctions on Cuba and blasted the US for seeking to impose “its will on the world,” according to a dispatch on the state media outlet Cubadebate.

Read More News

This year is the ‘saddest, hardest moments’ for Hailey Bieber

Photo above is from a YouTube screen grab