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View of the US Embassy in Moscow
Photo: Tatyana Makeeyeva / REUTERS
This is likely to further deteriorate relations between Russia and the United States: the Moscow city government has changed the official address of the US embassy.
The diplomatic mission is now located at Donetsk People's Republic Square.
Russia had recognized the self-proclaimed People's Republic in the Ukrainian Donbass (DPR) as independent shortly before attacking Ukraine.
The move will force the US embassy to refer to the DPR, which Washington does not recognize as an independent state, when providing its address.
The initiative for renaming came from the Moscow City Duma.
The final name was determined by means of an online survey – however, in addition to the DPR, only »the defenders of the Donbass« and the separatist Vladimir Shoga, who fell in March, were available for selection.
From the outset, the move was apparently aimed at angering Washington.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov publicly supported the project.
The crossroads where the embassy is located previously had no name.
The surrounding street names will therefore not change.
The move is reminiscent of a similar action by the United States in 2018. At that time, part of the street along the Russian embassy in Washington was renamed Boris Nemtsov Plaza.
Russian government critic Boris Nemtsov was murdered near the Kremlin in Moscow in 2015.
as /AFP