Moscow city authorities on Friday said they revoked special parking privileges at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to resolve parking shortages in the city center.
Russia this week revoked parking rights for U.S. diplomatic staff as part of an ongoing diplomatic spat following new U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia last month, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported on Thursday.
A U.S. State Department spokesperson confirmed the new measure telling the news agency it planned to raise the issue with the Russian Foreign Ministry.
The city’s department for parking told RIA on Friday that signs designating Embassy parking for diplomats had been removed.The official cited a severe shortage of parking spaces for cars in the city center.
Special parking privileges have also been removed at American consulates in Yekaterinburg, Vladivostok and St. Petersburg, the report says.
“Parking here was illegal and obstructed pedestrians,” a St. Petersburg city official told the RBC news outlet after the installment of a new pedestrian crossing sign in front of the city’s U.S. consulate.
The news comes after the Kommersant business daily earlier this week said Russia’s Foreign Ministry was preparing a range of measures, including restricting parking rights for U.S. diplomats in the name of “parity," after the U.S. ordered the closure of Russia's San Francisco consulate and several other consular buildings.
