The Embassy of the United States of America in Moscow () is the

diplomatic mission A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually denotes ...

of the

United States of America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguo ...

in the

Russian Federation Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. The current embassy compound is in the Presnensky District of

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

, across the street from the Russian White House and near the Moscow Zoo. The New Office Building (NOB) opened on May 5, 2000, while the adjoining consular section building opened on January 16, 2018. The new address is

Donetsk People's Republic The Donetsk People's Republic (DPR; , ) is Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, occupied territory in Ukraine that the Russian Federation has claimed to annex and declared as a Republics of Russia, republic of Russia, comprising parts o ...

Square 1 (''Ploshchad' Donetskoy Narodnoy Respubliki 1''); the name was changed in June 2022 in a similar manner to the changing of addresses of the Russian embassies in Prague and in Washington, D.C. The former address was "Bolshoy Deviatinsky Pereulok No. 8". The west side of the embassy security perimeter was also torn up to remove all barriers between the street and the embassy wall. As of June 2022, vinyl posters supporting the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

cover the construction fences.

Organization

The embassy consists of the following sections: * Political Section * Management Section * Regional Security Office * Economic Affairs Section * Public Affairs Section * Consular Section * Environment, Science, Technology, & Health Section * Law Enforcement Section In addition, representatives of several U.S. federal agencies work in the embassy. There are currently no consulates in Russia.

Old building

From 1934 to 1953, the U.S. embassy was located in the Mokhovaya House, 13 Mokhovaya Street, near the

Kremlin The Moscow Kremlin (also the Kremlin) is a fortified complex in Moscow, Russia. Located in the centre of the country's capital city, the Moscow Kremlin (fortification), Kremlin comprises five palaces, four cathedrals, and the enclosing Mosco ...

. In 1953, the embassy moved into the Existing Office Building (EOB) on Novinskiy Boulevard, which was quickly found to be cramped and inefficient. From 1953 to 1976, the Soviet government irradiated the embassy with microwave beams emitted from a nearby apartment building, in what was called the Moscow Signal incident. In 1964,

covert listening device A covert listening device, more commonly known as a bug or a wire, is usually a combination of a miniature radio transmitter with a microphone. The use of bugs, called bugging, or wiretapping is a common technique in surveillance, espionage and ...

s were discovered in the embassy. On August 26, 1977, a fire erupted on the eighth floor of the embassy building. Although it was extinguished, a large amount of information was lost or stolen; several firefighters were alleged to be

KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...

personnel who removed sensitive material. Today, the Existing Office Building (EOB) is still part of the embassy compound.

New building

Negotiations and bugging

Construction of a new U.S. embassy in the Presnensky District of

began in 1979. Planning had started ten years prior as part of the Cold War détente but was delayed due to American dissatisfaction with the sites and conditions. The Soviet Union was perceived to have gotten the upper hand in negotiations. For instance, as part of a 1972 agreement, most of the compound was built by Soviet workers. A team led by

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill SOM, an initialism of its original name Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, is a Chicago-based architectural, urban planning, and engineering firm. It was founded in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings. In 1939, they were joined by engineer ...

architect Charles Bassett designed the new embassy, which was "self-contained": it included residences, a school and shopping center along with office space. The embassy also had a red brick exterior to "convey some American flavor". In 1985, the building's columns and walls were found to be so riddled with listening devices that

classified information Classified information is confidential material that a government deems to be sensitive information which must be protected from unauthorized disclosure that requires special handling and dissemination controls. Access is restricted by law or ...

had to be handled in the old embassy. Construction was halted and all Soviet workers were removed from construction work. Additionally, in retaliation, Soviet diplomats were not allowed to occupy their new embassy in Washington, D.C. The standoff was resolved in 1994 when American workers were allowed to partially dismantle and rebuild the embassy, replacing the top three floors of the New Office Building (NOB) with four completely new ones.

Expanding embassy complex

In May 2000, the New Office Building (NOB) was finally completed, opening the following month. Classified business was confined to the upper floors, while standard consular business was conducted in the insecure lower floors.New building of the US Embassy
U.S. Embassy in Moscow. Date of access: 20 June 2019. The perimeter of the entire complex is . In 2013, construction began on a new adjoining building with a total area of .New US Consulate building opens in Moscow
Moscow 24. Date of access: 20 June 2019.Heads of departments and representative offices of federal agencies at the US Embassy
''US Embassy and Consulates in the Russian Federation''. Retrieved: 4 June 2022. Called the New Office Annex, it opened on January 16, 2018 and houses consular services, other embassy sections and staff housing.

Espionage

"The NSA is a global electronic vacuum cleaner, which monitors everything. Look at the top two floors of the new building of the U.S. Embassy—it's a huge antenna, which listens to the Moscow air," Igor Korotchenko, editor of ''National Defense'' magazine and former specialist in Russia's military command, said in 2013 on a Russian television program. The Russian ''

Vedomosti ( rus, Ведомости, p=ˈvʲedəməsʲtʲɪ, ) is a Russian-language business daily newspaper published in Moscow. History was founded in 1999 as a joint venture between Dow Jones, who publishes ''The Wall Street Journal''; Pearson, ...

'' newspaper, citing a source in the Russian special services, stated that the embassy is likely to host the local server of XKeyscore, an Internet surveillance system.Vedomosti.ru
Where can a spy server be located in Moscow?
/ref>

Security

According to a ''New York Times'' report on November 14, 2017, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson hired Elite Security Holdings, a Russian company associated with Victor Budanov, a

general involved in counterintelligence who was a boss of Vladimir Putin, to guard all United States diplomatic missions in Russia. U.S. diplomatic missions in Russia, including the United States Embassy in Moscow, are located in four cities.

New street name

On June 22, 2022, in response to the

and the renaming of the street on which the Russian embassy in the U.S. is located, the U.S. embassy in Moscow block and address was renamed Donetsk People's Republic Square, according to the Moscow Mayor's Office.The territory near the US Embassy in Moscow was renamed "DPR Square"
''Vedomosti''. Retrieved: 22 June 2022 Subsequently, the embassy website refused to use the new name in its contact information, instead listing its official address as "U.S. Embassy Moscow 55,75566° N, 37,58028° E".US Embassy in Moscow
/ref>

Other properties

The embassy once oversaw two consulates general in

Vladivostok Vladivostok ( ; , ) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai and the capital of the Far Eastern Federal District of Russia. It is located around the Zolotoy Rog, Golden Horn Bay on the Sea of Japan, covering an area o ...

and

Yekaterinburg Yekaterinburg (, ; ), alternatively Romanization of Russian, romanized as Ekaterinburg and formerly known as Sverdlovsk ( ; 1924–1991), is a city and the administrative centre of Sverdlovsk Oblast and the Ural Federal District, Russia. The ci ...

, but as of 2019, their status remains suspended due to "critically low staffing of the United States Mission to Russia".US Embassies and consulates in Russia.
/ref> In addition to the current U.S. embassy complex and former embassy site (the so-called Existing Office Building, or EOB), Spaso House has served as the U.S. ambassador's residence since 1933, owned by the United States on a leaseholding basis and located near the current embassy. Before August 1, 2017, the U.S. also owned a

dacha A dacha (Belarusian, Ukrainian language, Ukrainian and rus, дача, p=ˈdatɕə, a=ru-dacha.ogg) is a seasonal or year-round second home, often located in the exurbs of former Soviet Union, post-Soviet countries, including Russia. A cottage (, ...

in Serebryany Bor and warehouses on Dorozhnaya Street. Use of these facilities was prohibited in 2017, in response to the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats from the United States and the sanctions it placed on Russia.The ban on access of US diplomats to the dacha and warehouse in Moscow came into force
1TV.

Ambassadors

Lynne M. Tracy has been the U.S. Ambassador to Russia since January 20, 2023.

References

External links

U.S. Embassy & Consulates in Russia
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United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy of the United State ...

{{Authority control

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Soviet Union–United States relations Russia–United States relations