Russia demands return of embassy compounds in US

THE Kremlin demanded yesterday that Washington unconditionally restore its access to diplomatic compounds in the United States ahead of high-level talks on the issue.

Russia is angry that Washington is still barring its diplomats from using two compounds in the states of New York and Maryland after then president Barack Obama ordered the ban on access in December, in response to suspected Russian meddling in the US election.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “We consider it absolutely unacceptable to place conditions on the return of diplomatic property.

“It must be returned without any conditions and talking.”

He spoke as US State Department No 3 Thomas Shannon was set to host Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov in Washington last night.

Diplomats quoted by Russian news agencies said the issue of the residential complexes would be on their agenda.

The talks between Shannon and Ryabkov were earlier scheduled for June, but Russia cancelled them, citing new US sanctions linked to the conflict in Ukraine.

When President Vladimir Putin and US counterpart Donald Trump met for the first time at the G20 summit in Hamburg this month, the Kremlin strongman raised the question quite unambiguously, Peskov said.

“We still hope our American colleagues will show political wisdom and will,” he said.

Obama announced that the US was shutting down residential complexes in December at the same time as he expelled 35 Russian diplomats for spying.

He said the measures were in response to US intelligence reports of Russian hacking and an alleged influence campaign to sway the US election in Trump’s favour, describing the compounds as being used by Moscow for intelligence-related purposes.

At the time Putin held off from retaliating, saying he would wait to see how Trump reacted after entering the White House.

But hope that Trump would soon follow up on campaign pledges to boost relations have fizzled, as any ties to Moscow have become toxic for the White House amid a maelstrom of US investigations into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.

We hope our American colleagues will show political wisdom