The U.S. State Department denied Russia's ambassador access to the diplomatic property in San Francisco. Anatoly Antonov called this denial unprecedented. He arrived in California the day before to have a number of meetings and inspect Russia's diplomatic property before leaving on December 3.
Anatoly Antonov, Ambassador of Russia to the U.S.: "Before coming to California, I applied to the State Department for a permission to visit our diplomatic property in San Francisco. First of all, it's the Consulate General which was illegally taken from us, but, of course, it's also the consul general's residence. I believed it was the right thing to do. I believed we had every right to visit our own property. Even just to see what's going on there. After all, our people had to move out in a rush. I wanted to know if everything's okay there. But I was refused. Without any explanations".
In September, the U.S. State Department ordered Russia to clear out their Consulate-General in San Francisco, as well as the trade offices in Washington and New York. Back then they claimed it was a response to Russia's demand to make personnel cuts at the U.S. diplomatic mission in Russia.
The U.S. Congress stripped RT journalists of their accreditation. In the middle of November, the channel was forced to register as a foreign media agent. And now, the director of the RT America news network has received a letter stating that the rules of Congress don't allow the presence of journalists hired by a foreign government, which is why the Russian channel is losing its accreditation.
