Moscow has launched a series of official diplomatic demarches to Washington over the blocking of Russian representatives' access to the G20 preparatory events, which are being held under the US's rotating presidency in 2026, nampa.org reported.
The Russian side accuses the US of deliberately sabotaging its hosting commitments and using administrative tricks to isolate Russian delegates.
The director of the department at the Russian Foreign Ministry, Dmitry Birichevsky, announced that the US had not allowed Russian diplomatic representatives to attend working-level meetings preceding the G20 summit, which will be held in Miami on December 14-15.
Among those blocked were also members of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP).
The US authorities argued the denial with a "technical error" in the processing of documents and the entry regime, although the Russian representative had a regular visa.
The Russian Foreign Ministry categorically rejected the version of a "technical problem". According to Birichevsky, the situation clearly shows that the US is not capable of fully fulfilling the functions of the presidency of the international forum.
Marat Berdiev, Ambassador-at-Large of the Russian Foreign Ministry for the G20 and ATIS, noted to RIA Novosti that during the US presidency of the G20, Russia had already encountered problems with access to events of this format.
Representatives of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and the Russian Academy of Sciences cannot enter the United States, as these organizations are on Washington's sanctions list.
„We categorically reject this approach. We have made a series of diplomatic demarches on this issue".
The ambassador stressed that the violation of the rights of Russian delegates "poisons the atmosphere of the G-20 and calls into question its success this year".
Moscow warned Washington that it would not recognize the meetings and results held without its participation as having taken place within the framework of the G-20, Berdiev added.
Despite strained relations, the US State Department confirmed that as a full member of the organization, Russia had received an official invitation to participate at the highest level.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced that Vladimir Putin had not yet decided whether he would travel to Miami in person. The Russian president has not attended a G20 forum in person since 2019 due to the pandemic and the subsequent international isolation following the invasion of Ukraine.
Russia is considering sending a lower-level delegation to avoid diplomatic pitfalls on American soil.