Russia Outraged at Prolonged Diplomatic Row With US

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday that Moscow is “outraged” over the fact that Washington has not yet resolved the situation with Russian diplomatic property in the US, adding that Moscow is working out its response to US actions.

“There is an understanding that, indeed, patience is running out, because the situation is unprecedented: both from the point of view of bilateral Russian-US relations and from the viewpoint of international law. Therefore, of course, Russia cannot tolerate this for long without response measures,” Peskov told reporters, Sputnik reported.

“At the same time, we expect some kind of political will to be demonstrated on the part of our colleagues in the United States to rectify the violations of international law,” he said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on whether the situation with Russia’s diplomatic property in the United States had been discussed during Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump’s meeting in Hamburg.

“I will leave it without an answer,” Peskov said, replying to a question on whether or not Trump had paid attention to this issue during the meeting with Putin on the sidelines of the G20 summit on July 7.

The issue of the Russian diplomatic property in the United States was raised during the last week’s meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump. Next week, the problem will be discussed by Ryabkov and Shannon.

In December 2016, then-US President Barack Obama’s administration approved a sanctions package against Russia due to its alleged interference in the US elections. The measures included barring access to two diplomatic compounds in use by the Russian Embassy in Washington and Russia’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York.

The two compounds were closed down over Russia’s alleged interference in the US presidential election, which Moscow has repeatedly denied. At the same time, 35 Russian diplomats were expelled from the United States.