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Senior diplomat vows Russia will respond to any unfriendly steps by US

A diplomat says Moscow is ready to respond to the seizure of Russia’s diplomatic property by the United States

© AP Photo/Eric Risberg

MOSCOW, December 5. /TASS/. Moscow is ready to respond to the seizure of Russia’s diplomatic property by the United States in accordance with the reciprocity principle, a lawsuit to an American court is being prepared, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Tuesday.

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Russian diplomat comments on Moscow-Washington relations

"We are getting ready for filing a lawsuit with an American court. There are also other options we can fall back on," he said speaking at the Russian Civic Chamber. "We will continue to respond to any unfriendly steps in accordance with the reciprocity principle."

"To date, the US authorities have expropriated five of our facilities owned by Russia," he recalled describing the seizure of the Russian Consulate General in San Francisco a forcible takeover.

"Russian flags were taken down from the seized buildings, and we were prevented from removing part of the archival documents in San Francisco. The US intelligence services rummaged through them despite the fact that, under international law, consular archives remain inviolable always and everywhere," Ryabkov said.

He stressed that Moscow decided to refrain from "widening the spiral of countermeasures launched by Washington and, all the more so, from resorting to to such methods as seizure of someone else’s property.".

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