MOSCOW, February 17. /TASS/. Russia is launching lawsuits against the United States over the illegal seizure of Russian diplomatic property, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with the Euronews television channel on Friday.

"Of course, it is sad that over more than a year of Trump’s presidency our relations have failed to improve from what they were under the Democrats’ administration," he said. "They have even worsened in a sense."

"Obviously, I mean the seizure of our diplomatic property, which runs counter not only to the Vienna conventions but to all the principles underlying the US constitution and society, namely the inviolability of private property," he noted. "This principle has been infringed upon and now we are launching lawsuits in the United States, as we warned."

On September 2, 2017, the United States’ authorities closed Russia’s consulate general in San Francisco, the trade mission in Washington and its rented office in New York. The former two facilities are Russia’s government property and enjoy diplomatic immunity. Moscow considers the seizure of Russian diplomatic property as an openly hostile act and calls on the United States to immediately return these facilities.

Addressing a news conference after the BRICS summit in China’s Xiamen on September 5, 2017, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced plans to go to court over the seizure of Russia’s diplomatic property in the United States.