MOSCOW, January 20. /TASS/. US officials are as yet not ready to discuss the return of diplomatic property to Russia but Moscow will insist that these talks are held, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a news conference summing up the results of Russian diplomacy in 2025.
"We will seek to get the ball rolling on the issue," he noted. "So far, our American colleagues have been somewhat unwilling to talk about it, despite certain understandings reached earlier," Lavrov added.
The top diplomat pointed out that the decision to seize five Russian diplomatic properties was made by then-US President Barack Obama in late December 2015, "two weeks before he left the White House." According to Lavrov, this has since remained the key issue in terms of diplomatic relations between the two countries, with Russia repeatedly calling for "somehow addressing this absolute injustice and blatant violation of all diplomatic conventions."
"We have maintained contact since the beginning of last year, forming a mechanism for dialogue on embassy operation; but at the very start, we highlighted the need - supported by the Donald Trump administration - to make sure that dialogue is not focused only on how many visas are issued to diplomats, how diplomatic facilities are protected, how diplomats travel around the host country, and other consular issues of this kind," Lavrov said. However, he concluded with regret that "this is a completely abnormal situation, where both countries’ embassies - in Washington and Moscow - are unable to operate normally," was still there.
Need to resume flights
The Russian foreign minister also said that the issue of flight resumption was also on the agenda of bilateral talks with the US.
"The normal operation of diplomatic missions and the expansion of communication, which is what Washington has called for under Donald Trump, require the resumption of direct flights," he stressed.