Austria denies visa to Russian cybercrime convention negotiator

Austria has not granted a visa to one of the representatives of the Russian delegation to attend the UN Special Committee session on the creation of a comprehensive international convention to tackle information crime.

The statement came from Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova at a briefing on January 12, TASS reports.

The session kicked off in the Austrian capital Vienna on January 9, 2023. The body was established in 2019 at Russia’s initiative, co-sponsored by 46 states, by UN General Assembly Resolution 74/247, Zakharova recalled.

"The wording of the articles proposed for discussion by the chairman of the [UN] Ad Hoc Committee is largely based on the provisions of the Russian draft convention submitted to the UN in the summer of 2021," the spokesperson said.

She said the convention includes state-of-the-art approaches to prevent cybercrime, as well as legal practices to establish cooperation between law enforcement agencies of the United Nations member states.

Zakharova stressed that Russia counts on the constructive participation of all UN member states in the negotiations in order to quickly agree on the future convention and its entry into force.