Object reality: Russia will continue to seek return of diplomatic property in the U.S.
The issue of the return of Russian diplomatic property in the United States is not closed, Moscow will seek the return of all illegally seized and held facilities. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told Izvestia. According to him, the new US administration should prepare for the fact that Russia will constantly "drip on their brains" on this issue. At the same time, the US said earlier that it had completely stopped the dialog on the return of Russian diplomatic property.
Russia is trying to gain access to diplomatic facilities in the United States
The issue of Russian diplomatic property is not closed. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Izvestia that Moscow will continue to seek its return.
- It cannot be closed until we achieve from the authorities in Washington, regardless of the outgoing administration, regardless of the future administration, the return of all illegally seized and held diplomatic real estate. We have been working on this, we will continue to work on it, and we are not losing our concentration of will in this direction, so the Americans in the new administration should prepare themselves for the fact that we will constantly, I hate to say, "drip on their brains," but in fact that's exactly what it is," Ryabkov emphasized.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov
In July, Izvestia found out that Washington no longer wants to dialog with Moscow on this issue. In fact, it is closed for the American side.
- The issue of the return of Russian diplomatic property has been at the center of our work since the first day the Americans made such a hostile move. The problem is being discussed at all levels. However, Washington does not want to talk to us and limits itself to just writing back in response to Russian demands," Anatoly Antonov, who at the time served as Russia's ambassador to the United States, told Izvestia.
At the same time, the current administration of Joe Biden does not even allow the Russian side to assess the technical condition of the property. The safety of valuables left in these premises cannot be checked either.
Consulate General of the Russian Federation in Seattle
In total, Washington has arrested six Russian properties. Two of them were used as vacation homes for diplomats and their families. Thus, Russian specialists were deprived of access to the Killenworth estate on Long Island near New York. Under arrest was also a country complex in Maryland, 100 km from Washington, purchased in 1972 for more than $1 million. In 2017, the United States stripped diplomatic immunity from part of the Russian consulate in San Francisco, the building of the trade mission in the American capital and its office in New York. In March 2018, the Americans closed the Russian Consulate General in Seattle (leased from the United States), and since April, access to Russian employees has been restricted there.
By its actions, Washington violated several provisions of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961. For example, Article 27, which states that even in the event of a military conflict, consular premises, as well as the property of the consular office and its archives, must be respected and protected. Nor is Article 31, according to which "the authorities of the host state may not enter that part of the consular premises which is used exclusively for the work of the consular post except with the consent of the head of the consular post, his designee and the head of the diplomatic mission of the represented state." The U.S. also violated the bilateral agreement concluded with the USSR on the inviolability of buildings (Art. 17).
Killenworth Manor
- The formal U.S. position is that there is no violation of international law. Since there are enough competent lawyers in the country, even the search of consulates and country residences was officially called an inspection to make sure that Russian personnel had left the facilities. Another thing is that the Vienna Convention mentions so-called executive actions, which may well be identified with an inspection. However, there are several interpretations that can be made here, which is what the Americans are focusing on," Ivan Loshkarev, an associate professor at the Department of Political Theory at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations of the Russian Foreign Ministry, said in a conversation with Izvestia.
In his opinion, attempts to circumvent the meaning of the Vienna Convention provisions do not strengthen trust between the countries and create general tension in communication through official channels. Subsequently, the precedent created by the Americans may serve to prepare a legally binding document on additional measures to protect diplomatic missions and on the responsibility of the host state for violation of the norms.
Washington's unilateral actions have a negative impact on diplomacy as such, says Mikhail Mironyuk, associate professor of the Department of Politics and Management at the National Research University Higher School of Economics.
- Strictly speaking, the U.S. adopts and applies diplomacy when it needs to. In other words, diplomacy is a hostage to the conjuncture. We cannot say that what is happening has become something out of the ordinary. But the qualifications of diplomats and the meaning of diplomacy in general are being lost," he told Izvestia.
Prospects for resolving the issue under Trump
The confiscation scandal began under the outgoing Barack Obama administration in 2016. Then the US adopted a package of anti-Russian sanctions for alleged interference in the US elections. By the way, in his 2016 election campaign, as well as in the recent race, Donald Trump advocated normalization of relations with Moscow. Many saw that move as an attempt by the Democratic establishment to spoil the upcoming dialog between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. However, the arrests of diplomatic real estate actively continued under the Republican.
Today has certain similarities with the events of eight years ago. The US President-elect actively advocates dialog with Russia, including peace talks on Ukraine, while the current Democrat administration escalates the situation in every possible way. A clear example is the authorization given to Kiev to strike deep into Russian territory with long-range Western weapons.
After being elected president, Donald Trump has not abandoned his campaign rhetoric and still promises to make every effort to resolve the Ukrainian conflict. He also expressed readiness for dialog with the Russian president. On December 19, Vladimir Putin once again assured that he was also ready for contacts and a meeting with Trump. All of this adds to optimism about the future, but Trump's intentions of 2016 to build normal U.S.-Russian relations have not, in fact, materialized. Therefore, until the first concrete foreign policy actions of the new administration, it is difficult to draw any definite conclusions. If normalization of relations happens, the issue of diplomatic property may also be resolved.
- From Trump's point of view, this issue can be resolved by either a full or partial return of Russia's access to its property. Moreover, in 2017, this issue was discussed in the presidential administration, but at that time it was sharply opposed by US security officials. From the announced appointments in the new Trump administration, it is clear that continuity on this issue among security officials is more than likely. Since this problem is not so big against the background of the conflict in Ukraine, the Republican is unlikely to want to deal with it himself and will delegate its solution to the law enforcers and the future Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is close to them," Ivan Loshkarev believes.
In Mikhail Mironyuk's opinion, the current situation is unlikely to change and the seized diplomatic property is unlikely to be returned.
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