Russian President Vladimir Putin raised in stark terms the issue of the access to and the return of Russian diplomatic property to the United States during a virtual meeting with US President Joe Biden last week, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told Sputni
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th December, 2021) Russian President Vladimir Putin raised in stark terms the issue of the access to and the return of Russian diplomatic property to the United States during a virtual meeting with US President Joe Biden last week, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told Sputnik.
"In a phone conversation on December 7, the Russian president put this question before Biden in a very harsh manner. And the very form of his raising (of the question), I am sure, attracted additional attention to the topic," Ryabkov said.
Over several years, Moscow has sent over 500 notes to the United States demanding the return of Russian diplomatic property and will continue the practice, the diplomat said, adding that Washington's excuses are absolutely unacceptable.
"This is a way to emphasize how much we are concerned and alarmed by this completely intolerable situation, and to what extent the American arguments, excuses for why they do not want to do this, are unacceptable for us," Ryabkov said.
The US' attempts to present the matter in such a way that Russia remains the owner of these facilities but has no right either to use them, or even to enter there is just "a blatant attempt to deny the foundations of interstate communication, to deny everything that constitutes, by and large, the content of the concept of diplomatic immunity," the diplomat added.
A row between the United States and Russia over the latter's diplomatic property took place in December 2016, when then US President Barack Obama closed two Russian diplomatic compounds in New York and Maryland and expelled 35 Russian diplomats.
Russian diplomats have since repeatedly asked the US government to provide access to the confiscated facilities in order to make an inventory and determine their condition but to no effect. Moscow said the US actions are in violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic and Consular Relations as well as other aspects of international law.
