Moscow (Reuters) – Moscow on Wednesday said a visa for a candidate to lead the mission of the US space agency NASA in Russia had refused in retaliation for the US refusal of a visa to an unknown Russian official .
Russia has not identified the U.S. official who refused a visa or provided further details about the incident for which it was retaliated against. The U.S. embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“It was a reciprocal step,” state news agency RIA quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying.
Russia and the United States have been working closely together for decades on space exploration, and they have conducted the International Space Station jointly, despite deteriorating relations in other areas.
Ryabkov said that NASA was not responsible for creating barriers to interaction with Moscow, but that this was not the case for other US government bodies.
“Ideally, we would eliminate restrictions on diplomatic visas between the two countries,” he said. “We will present it to the government in Washington.”
(Reporting by Maria Kiselyova and Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; editing by)