WP: The United States is ready to return the embassy cottages to Russia

The US administration is going to return the so-called embassy cottages in New York and Maryland, seized last December. According to The Washington Post, in early May the American side linked this issue with the allocation of a site for the construction of a new US Consulate building in St. Petersburg. However, then Washington changed the position of which the Secretary of State Rex Tillerson informed Russian colleague Sergei Lavrov at a meeting on May 10.

The American side, however, is considering the removal of diplomatic immunity from the embassy cottages, which will open access there to law enforcement agencies.

The administration of Barack Obama at the end of December gave Russian diplomats 24 hours to free both embassy cottages. As the US President said then, these dachas were used by Russian intelligence. At the same time, 35 diplomats were sent from the United States. This step followed in connection with Moscow’s intervention in the elections and persecution of American diplomats in Russia.

The Russian side did not take symmetrical response. As it turned out later, Michael Flynn, then adviser to Donald Trump, promised in a telephone conversation with the Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak that under the new administration the conflict would be resolved.

After Trump’s inauguration, the Russian side publicly protested against the “expropriation” of diplomatic property and threatened with response measures .

In October last year, the Russian authorities blocked the already concluded deal to buy a plot for the US Consulate General in St. Petersburg. Since 1972, the consulate has been working in house number 15 on Furshtatskaya Street. In addition to St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, it serves 8 more subjects of the Federation.