The US allowed Moscow to deploy an aeroplane to Washington to pick up diplomats on Tuesday and demanded reciprocity, despite a ban on commercial flights.
“The US government allowed the Russian government to send a charter flight to the United States to transport to Russia those Russian diplomats whose assignments have ended,” State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
Miller stated that the United States desired “strict reciprocity” from Russia, but he could not provide any information regarding the number of diplomats involved.
“In exchange for granting these courtesies, we expect Russia to maintain open transport for our diplomats and cargo to our embassy in Moscow,” he said.
As part of the actions taken to put pressure on Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the United States prohibited all Russian aircraft from entering its airspace. It stopped US carriers from flying over Russia.
During the war, the United States and Russia have only occasionally engaged in high-level diplomatic exchanges, in part to negotiate for the release of Americans who have been detained.
