Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will take over as chairman of the Security Council on Monday, as Russia takes turns chairing the Council at a very difficult international moment.

This is a UN body whose members have criticized Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine due to procedural rules that each member state takes turns heading the council in alphabetical order.

While the chairmanship prevents Moscow from making unilateral decisions on the body, it has used its position in the past to delay meetings on Ukraine and to show that the US and other Western countries are making false accusations against Russia.

In addition to chairing Monday’s meeting, Lavrov is scheduled to meet UN Secretary-General António Guterres in New York this week. The leaders are expected to discuss a deal on Black Sea grain.

Russian officials also say Mr. Lavrov and his American counterpart, Foreign Minister Anthony Blinken, do not plan to meet on the sidelines of a Security Council meeting.

Tensions between Russia and the United States continue to rise over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and the expansion of diplomatic disputes.

“There are no such plans. In general, we do not have an agenda with the Americans for discussion at the ministerial level at the moment,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Sunday, according to the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.

Intensity

Russia “will not forgive” the US for not issuing visas to Russian journalists to travel to the US and cover Mr. Lavrov’s speech, the foreign minister told reporters on Sunday. Russian state media reported that Moscow would retaliate against American journalists.

“The United States should not doubt that American journalists will experience maximum discomfort after Washington’s refusal to issue American visas to a pool of Russian journalists to work at UN events in New York,” a diplomatic source said, TASS reports.

Source: CNN