Former Russian ambassador says Russia will never abandon its diplomatic estate in the USA
Russia will seek access to its diplomatic residences in the United States and will not give up the right to them, stated the former Russian Ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak on Russia 24 TV, RIA Novosti reports.
"We are going to fight [for this property]; we will never give up our rights to this dacha. And we'll see what happens next," Kislyak said.
Kislyak accused the USA of violating international law. "They deprived us of access to our property. The Soviet state had paid a lot of money for these dachas at that time. The dachas were always used very correctly, we held a lot of events there, including with the participation of the diplomatic corps," Kislyak said.
The Kremlin has required Washington to reinstate diplomatic access to two estates in New York and Maryland, which were seized by the Barack Obama administration in December 2016 after suspicions of Russia's interference in the 2016 elections.
Russia reciprocated by announcing its sanctions against American diplomats. The Russian Federation required the United States to reduce the number of diplomatic employees to 455 before the beginning of the fall. This is a reduction of 755 employees of the US diplomatic mission.
The US Embassy also will no longer be able to use storage facilities on Dorozhnaya Street in Moscow and a dacha in Serebryany Bor.