Lavrov: US Preconditions to Return Russian Property Is ‘Robbery’

Kremlin Officials Urge US to Display 'Political Wisdom'

Jason Ditz 

Posted onJuly 17, 2017CategoriesNewsTagsRussia, Trump

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov expressed outrage today as, continuing to seek the return of diplomatic facilities seized by the Obama Administration back in December, he keeps running into US officials setting preconditions for any such return.

Lavrov said the preconditions on returning the two sites, in New York and Maryland, amounts to “daylight robbery,” and that Russia considered such demands unacceptable for something as simple as recovering two sites they legally purchased decades prior.

Kremlin officials were also pushing for the return of the properties ahead of a new round of talks between diplomats, saying that the Trump Administration needs to display some “political wisdom” during this next round of talks.

That’s not exactly in the administration’s political wheelhouse to begin with, and returning Russia’s property to Russia is likely to prove so politically controversial within the US that the administration will continue to delay doing so. The longer this drags on, however, the more pressure Russia’s own government will be under to make good on threats of retaliatory actions against the US diplomatic corps in Moscow.

http://news.antiwar.com/2017/07/17/lavrov-us-preconditions-to-return-russian-property-is-robbery/