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Russian Envoy to US Visits Seized Property in San Francisco

© AFP 2023 / Josh EdelsonThe Russian flag flies at half mast at the Consulate-General of Russia in San Francisco, California (File)
The Russian flag flies at half mast at the Consulate-General of Russia in San Francisco, California (File) - Sputnik International
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Russian ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said that the representatives of the State Department caused no obstacles to the Russian diplomats while they were looking at the compounds in San Francisco from the outside.

SAN FRANCISCO (Sputnik) — Russian ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said that he was able to view from outside the seized diplomatic properties in San Francisco, California and is determined to do his best to return.

"Today I visited a compound… I looked at my building, my building because it's a Russian building, still it's a Russian property," Antonov Said during a meeting with Stanford University students on Friday. "Then I visited compound around building where my Consul General was living."

When asked whether there were any obstacles while he was looking at the diplomatic property seized by the US authorities, Antonov told Sputnik "No."

The Russian ambassador has also visited the office of Russia's state-owned technology company RUSNANO, which implements the government's policy in the development of nanotechnologies in Russia in the US state of California and met with the students at the Stanford University, where he also talked to former US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul.

McFaul's Reveals His Position on Seizure of Russia's Diplomatic Property

As former US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul told Sputnik, the United States should provide an explanation to Russia for its decisions to seize Russian diplomatic property.

A car with diplomatic license plates drives out of a compound near Glen Cove, N.Y., on Long Island on Friday, Dec. 30, 2016. Russia maintains this and another weekend retreat for its United Nations diplomats about an hour's drive outside New York City — each in one of Long Island's old Gold Coast mansions. U.S. officials didn't clarify which of the two countryside compounds would be closed - Sputnik International
Russia Continues Work on Lawsuit Against US Over Diplomatic Property
When asked whether he considered these decisions to be wrong, McFaul said, "I am just not a lawyer, so I don't know what's right and wrong. I do think, you know, if we confiscate that property, then we at least owe him [Anotonov] an explanation for that."

On September 2, the United States shut down Russia's Consulate General in San Francisco and trade missions in New York City and in Washington, DC. US officials said the move came in response to Moscow's earlier offer to Washington to reduce the number of US diplomatic staff in Russia to 455 people, the same number of diplomatic personnel Russia has in the United States. The US security services subsequently entered the premises to perform searches.

Russia said that such actions constituted a violation of international law, including the Vienna convention on diplomatic and consular relations, and pledged to sue the US authorities.

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