By Conducting Searches at Russian Trade Mission US Undermine International Law – Peskov

XIAMEN, China- Moscow expressed complete rejection and profound regret over searches at the Russian trade mission in Washington, Russian president’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday, adding that the Russian-US relations continue to degrade, Itar Tass reported.

“Evidently, we can express profound regret over this violation of international law,” he told journalists. In his words, such actions “undermine international law” and “run counter to the convention on diplomatic relations.”

“It cannot but cause utter rejection and profound regret,” he stressed. “Steps are being made (by the US) that entail further degradation of the Russian-US relations.”

“A month ago, one could think that there were no further worsening in our relations but the US side is demonstrating that is can go further and further on that path,” Peskov noted. “We regret it.”

 The Kremlin spokesman refrained from answering the question about Moscow’s possible response measures. “Let us wait until the Russian head of state expresses his point of view on that matter,” he said.

When asked whether Putin has been informed about what happened in Washington, Peskov answered in a question, “And how do you think?” “When one of the biggest world nations tramples down international law, the president of another biggest world nation is immediately informed about that,” he added.

On August 31, the United States authorities demanded Moscow close its consulate general in San Francisco, trade mission in Washington and its office in New York by September 2.

Earlier, the Russian foreign ministry said in statement that on September 2 the United States authorities had seized the buildings of Russia’s consulate general in San Francisco and trade mission in Washington, which are Russia’s property and enjoy diplomatic immunity. Apart from that, Russian personnel was denied access to the premises the Russian trade mission rents in New York. Moscow described the seizure of Russian diplomatic property in the United States as an openly hostile step and called on the US authorities to return the diplomatic facilities immediately.

Zakharova: US intel planned to look for explosives at Russian diplomatic facilities

Meanwhile, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told the Rossiya 1 television channel on Sunday that the US intelligence agencies were going to look for explosives at Russian diplomatic representations in the US.

“By the way, do you know, what they were looking for – as we were told before the searches? You would not believe it – they were looking for explosives,” she said, adding ironically that it can be easily imagined how Russian diplomats are carrying explosive substances in their elegant cases.

According to Zakharova, the US security services obviously hoped Russian diplomats would lose their nerves and here there will be “an image of an aggressive Russian.” “Just try to imagine that you are being brainwashed for a year that an enemy is living overseas and this enemy is impacting your life and everything bad that might happen – the election of a president you don’t like – has been done by the Russians,” she said.

“On September 2, black cars with FBI and State Department officers rolled up to our consulate general in San Francisco and they came into the building,” she said. “A day before, the directorate chief said that if the doors of our diplomatic compound, which is our property, were closed they would be broken. More to it, a car of a private company specializing in forcing open doors, locks and safes drove to our trade mission in Washington. We have posted this video in the internet.”

“I don’t know how our diplomats could find nerve enough to open the doors and be polite,” she added.

H.M