Moscow assails US over flag removals amid consulate dispute

MOSCOW: Moscow has lodged a protest with Washington over the removal of Russian flags from two of its closed diplomatic missions in the United States, the foreign ministry said Thursday.

“Yesterday we learned about a new hostile act of the US authorities against our diplomatic missions,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters.

“We’ve already lodged a decisive protest with the United States.” She complained that Russian flags had been “torn down” from the buildings of the general consulate in San Francisco and Russia’s trade mission in Washington.

The United States in August ordered Russia to close its San Francisco consulate and two other installations as relations between the two former Cold War enemies took another nose-dive.

“Obviously the Russian side has never agreed to its flags being removed,” Zakharova said, calling the removal “a violation of a Russian state symbol.”

“The Russian side will decide on retaliatory measures,” Zakharova added. — AFP