WASHINGTON _ Russia said Tuesday that it is losing patience over the return of properties that the United States seized as penalty for Moscow's election interference, as tense talks between the two countries have yielded no resolution.
In Moscow, officials threatened to take "retaliatory measures" if the U.S. continued to "hinder" their government's diplomatic mission, and the spokesman for President Vladimir Putin said the Kremlin's patience "is expiring."
"We are still counting on the reasonableness of our American counterparts to at least bring the situation into the legal framework in accordance with the international law," said the spokesman, Dmitry Peskov.
In late December the Obama administration expelled 35 Russian diplomats and seized the two elaborate estates, one on Long Island and the other on Maryland's Eastern Shore, in response to the conclusion of U.S. intelligence services that Russia had meddled in the election to benefit Donald Trump. The U.S. also said the Russians were using the properties for espionage.
Russia has denied the charges and demanded return of the diplomatic compounds, which the then-Soviet Union purchased during the Cold War. It had expected a favorable result from the new Trump administration after the discord of the Obama years.
Yet U.S. and Russian officials agree that relations between the two countries remain dismal, despite the apparent mutual affinity of their presidents, Trump and Putin. Trump has hinted he would be willing to return the properties and end additional U.S. sanctions against Russia that were imposed because of its 2014 occupation of Crimea.
Still, talks held on Monday in Washington between Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and U.S. undersecretary of State Thomas Shannon did not go well, U.S. and Russian officials said Tuesday,
"The conversation was tough, forthright, and deliberate," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said, quoting Shannon, "reflecting both parties' commitment to a resolution."
"Nothing is coming together anytime soon," she added in a briefing with reporters.
Nauert refused to be pinned down on whether the United States was willing to return the properties. But she said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, following Trump's wishes, wanted a "better path" for Moscow-Washington relations that would "smooth out" some of the "irritants."
Russia wants the return of the properties and permission to reassign some of the expelled diplomats.
"We expected big difficulties in talks with Americans not only concerning the diplomatic property but on other issues as well," Ryabkov told reporters after his meeting with Shannon. "And that's what happened."
The talks come against the backdrop of the growing scandal over whether members of Trump's campaign and family circle met with Russian operatives as part of Moscow's broader effort to damage the candidacy of Trump's Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. That question as well as Russia's interference are subjects of an investigation by a Justice Department special counsel.
Trump and Putin earlier this month announced a limited ceasefire in a small part of Syria, which the U.S. president hailed as evidence of the two longtime rivals' newfound ability to cooperate.
