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None of Russian diplomats feels safe in US — deputy UN envoy

"Every Russian diplomat who is working in the United States faces certain threat, and it is unpredictable," he said, when asked to comment on expulsion of Russian diplomats from the US

UNITED NATIONS, December 1. /TASS/. None of Russian diplomats in the United States feels protected against possible expulsion, Russian First Deputy Representative to the UN Dmitry Polyansky told reporters on Tuesday.

"Every Russian diplomat who is working in the United States faces certain threat, and it is unpredictable," he said, when asked to comment on expulsion of Russian diplomats from the US. "Of course this situation is not normal."

"We have to remove all these obstacles, we have to come back to normal functioning of our diplomatic missions," he added.

Speaking about the seizure of Russian diplomatic property in the US, Polyansky said: "This is a complex issue and it should be sorted out before we can speak about some kind of renaissance of relations between Russia and the US."

Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said earlier that 27 Russian diplomats and their families will have to leave the United States on January 30, 2022 and the 27 more diplomats - by June 30, 2020 because their visas are not extended by the US side. He added that the problem of visa issuance for Russian diplomats remained unsolved, and they were being deliberately separated from their families.

The United States insists that the departure of 54 Russian diplomats from the US due in 2022 cannot be interpreted as an expulsion or a punitive measure, Deputy Spokesperson of the Department of State Jalina Porter said on Monday. According to Porter, the United States makes the same demands to Russian diplomats as Russia’s to US diplomats. "We continue to discuss this issue with Russia," she added.