Russia’s foreign minister cancels visit to UN in Geneva

By Peter Kenny

GENEVA (AA) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will not attend high-level meetings of the UN Human Rights Council and the Council on Disarmament in Geneva as scheduled Tuesday.

"FM # Lavrov's visit to #Geneva for the session of the @UN_HRC and the Conference on Disarmament has been canceled due to an unprecedented ban on his flight in the airspace of a number of EU countries that have imposed anti-Russian sanctions,” the Russian Mission to the UN in Geneva said in a tweet Monday.

Lavrov had been scheduled to speak at the human rights body along with high-level officials from more than 130 countries.

Swiss President Ignazio Cassis announced Monday that the country's Federal Council, a body representing the major parliamentary parties, decided to adopt the packages of sanctions imposed on Russia by the European Union.

The council said it took the decision "in view of Russia's continuing military intervention in Ukraine."

"The assets of the individuals and companies listed are frozen with immediate effect; the financial sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov are also to be implemented with immediate effect," it said.

The UN Human Rights Council voted earlier Monday to have an urgent debate on the Russia-Ukraine war.

The debate was proposed by Yevheniia Filipenko, Ukraine's ambassador to the UN, but was rejected by Moscow's UN representative Gennady Gatilov.

A vote was called and adopted with 29 votes in favor, five against and 13 abstentions. The UN said the debate will take place Thursday.

Lavrov has worked under presidents Putin and Dmitry Medvedev and became foreign minister in 2004.

In his work, he frequently represents the Kremlin in international negotiations in Geneva on global conflicts such as in Syria or that involving Iran and in talks with the United States.

Russia closed its airspace Monday to 36 countries, according to an announcement by the Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviation).

The move came after the European Union banned Russian aircraft from its airspace Sunday. Switzerland was not among the countries named.