U.S. denies entry to a delegation of Russian General Staff heading to UN conference in New York
Members of the delegation of the General Staff of the Russian Defense Ministry, which were planning to travel to the UN headquarters to participate in the Russian-Chinese military conference, were not issued U.S. visas, as stated by the head of the main department of international military cooperation of the Defense Ministry Alexander Emelyanov, reports RIA Novosti.
On Thursday, October 12, at the United Nations, a briefing was held on the issue of the deployment of an anti-missile defense system by the United States. It was attended by representatives of the Russian Ministry of Defense, but the delegation of the General Staff “was not issued entry visas by the U.S. to enter U.S. territory,” Alexander Yemelyanov said. Yemelyanov himself took part in the briefing.
The delegation included the adviser to the Chief of the General Staff, First Deputy Defense Minister Lieutenant-General Andrey Tretiak, Yemelyanov said.
Earlier on the same day, Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov accused the U.S. of deploying the 2nd U.S. Armored Division in Poland, which deployed armored vehicles in the vicinity of the settlements of Boleslawiec, Drawsko-Pomorskie, Torun, Skwierzyna and Zagan. According to him, they arrived there “quietly.”
Konashenkov pointed out that the equipment of the 3rd Armored Division (87 M1A1 Abrams tanks, a heavy self-propelled M109 Paladin howitzer, a 144 BPM Bradley and about a hundred other units) never left the territory of Poland.
"In fact, it is no longer a brigade deployed in Poland and the Baltics, but a mechanized division of the U.S. Armed Forces, where in two hours you can transfer trained personnel from the nearest American base in Europe, Ramstein [Germany],” said Konashenkov.
In response, Poland called the position of the Russian Ministry of Defense “unfounded.” The Minister of Defense of Poland Antoni Macierewicz rejected the accusations of the Russian Defense Ministry. He also said that more than 120,000 military personnel took part in the Russian-Belarusian Zapad-2017 exercises, while the Russian Ministry of Defense officially stated that 12,500 were involved in the exercises.