14 July, 2017
"This totally contradicts global law", Reuters cited Peskov as saying.
He stressed that "Russia won't be able to tolerate this for long, without giving a tit-for-tat response".
Also on Wednesday, the Russian Federation Council (upper house of the parliament) Speaker Valentina Matviyenko warned that Russia will "respond appropriately" to the USA seizure of its properties if diplomatic efforts fail.
Any U.S. preconditions for the return of its diplomatic property seized by the United States ran contrary to global law, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
"We, no doubt, expect that our counterparts in the USA will show some sort of political will to improve the committed violations of worldwide law", Putin's press secretary has emphasized.
The issue of the Russian diplomatic property in the United States was raised during the last week's meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his USA counterpart Donald Trump.
"I will leave it without an answer", Peskov said, replying to a question on whether or not Trump had paid attention to this issue during the meeting with Putin on the sidelines of the G20 summit on July 7.
Two retreats in NY and Maryland used by Russian diplomats for recreation and receptions were closed by the Obama administration in late December over accusations of alleged Russian hacking in connection with the 2016 presidential election. Next week, the problem will be discussed by Ryabkov and Shannon.
Moscow has already canceled such meeting once, when the two diplomats were expected to meet on June 23 in the Russian city of St. Petersburg, citing Washington's decision to introduce new sanctions against Russia over alleged involvement in the Ukrainian crisis. At the same time, 35 Russian diplomats were expelled from the United States.
