IAEA head may visit Russia in late May - Russian Foreign Ministry

MOSCOW. April 18 (Interfax) - International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi may visit Russia in late May, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.

"As for another trip of IAEA Director General Grossi to Russia, we do not rule it out in late May," Zakharova said at a press briefing on Thursday.

Journalists asked Zakharova whether Moscow was ready to allow IAEA representatives to check the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant. "The IAEA is a technical body, which has no mandate to initiate checks of nuclear safety and security of reactor units," she said.

"All the agency can do is organize a peer review mission at the request of an interested state that owns a particular nuclear facility. The agency has no mandate to initiate such requests, let alone impose its missions on particular countries. The agency does not have such rights," Zakharova said.

"Russia made no such request to the IAEA Secretariat. We have only seen certain public statements on the matter," she said.