Embassy of the Russian Federation in the USA
Phone (consular questions): (202) 939-8914 | Emergency line : (202) 298‑5700
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11 october / 2017

Ambassador's Statement

A resolute protest has been conveyed to the US side following the removal of Russian flags from our diplomatic facilities in San Francisco and the trade mission in Washington. Earlier, these buildings were seized by the US authorities in violation of the norms of international law, bilateral agreements and the US laws.

We consider these as highly unfriendly steps that run counter to previous official Washington assurances that it wants to normalize bilateral relations. Such steps only hamper Russian-US dialogue. The entire responsibility for the violation of norms of international relations rests only on Washington.
We demand that the systemic seizures of our diplomatic properties in the United States accompanied by offensive actions cease immediately. Returns our flags on buildings belonging to the Russian Federation. Prevents such incidents in the future.
In an interview with the Rossiya television channel Ambassador added:
We have been calling and are calling for establishing pragmatic bilateral cooperation with the United States. We are confident that such cooperation between the two great powers is in the interests of the entire international community. Russia and U.S. are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and bear special responsibility for international peace and security.
We thought a recent constructive meeting between Russia’s top diplomat Sergey Lavrov and his US counterpart Rex Tillerson laid a good foundation to check Washington’s actions from which no one benefits and ponder about what is to be done together to bring bilateral relations to a higher level.
It’s saddening that today’s actions by the US undermine this confidence and optimism. But I still want to believe that official Washington will change its mind, draw the right conclusions from our statements and our relations will finally normalize.