Kremlin won’t tolerate seizure of its diplomatic properties in US for long

MOSCOW, July 12. /TASS/. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has warned that Moscow is running out of patience over the seizure of Russian diplomatic properties in the United States.

"There is no particular timeline, there is understanding that patience is running out indeed and that’s why the situation is unprecedented - both in regard to bilateral Russian-US relations and international law," Peskov said.

He stressed that "Russia won’t be able to tolerate this for long, without giving a tit-for-tat response."

Moscow expects that Washington will demonstrate its political will to solve the problem of closed Russian diplomatic compounds in the US:

"We, no doubt, expect that our counterparts in the US will show some sort of political will to improve the committed violations of international law," Putin's press secretary has emphasized.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday Moscow was mulling tit-for-tat measures in response to its seized diplomatic mansions in the US.

In late December 2016, the Obama administration introduced a new round of sanctions against some Russian companies, the Federal Security Service and the Main Intelligence Agency of Russia’s General Staff. Besides that, US authorities expelled 35 Russian diplomats and shut down two Russian compounds in New York and Maryland. Washington attributed these sanctions to cyber attacks against US political institutions, accusing Russia of being involved. However, Moscow fully rejected all allegations.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said earlier that these facilities had always had diplomatic immunity, so their seizure was a gross violation of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

TASS