MOSCOW, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Three trucks, a minibus, a jeep and a taxicab left the summerhouse of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow's prestigious compound of Serebryany Bor in evacuation on Tuesday, as a result of escalating diplomatic tensions between the U.S. and Russia.
"The last two employees to leave the property hung a lock on the gates," the RIA Novosti news agency quoted its correspondent who witnessed the departure as saying.
On Friday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Moscow would suspend the use of a warehouse and the summerhouse by the U.S. Embassy staff from Aug. 1, as part of retaliation to a new sanction bill passed in the U.S. Congress and the expulsion of Russian diplomats and seizure of two Russian diplomatic properties in the United States in December.
On Monday, the U.S. Embassy complained that it was denied access to the summerhouse from Sunday.
But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov explained earlier on Tuesday that the problems U.S. diplomats encountered were due to a ban on the entry by large transport vehicles to the territory of the compound.
It was not immediately clear whether the U.S. diplomats had completed the evacuation of its Moscow warehouse, but RIA Novosti reported that most of the items kept there were shipped out last week.
Tensions between Moscow and Washington have flared up since both chambers of the U.S. Congress approved a bill slapping tougher sanctions on Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday announced Moscow's decision to reduce the U.S. diplomatic staff in Russia by 755 people, including U.S. and Russian nationals, by Sept. 1.
