Russia has accused the U.S. State Department of unlawfully granting citizenship to children of Russian diplomats born in the United States, a move Moscow says violates international norms and bilateral diplomatic practice.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova on Monday said that U.S. authorities were invoking “birthright citizenship” to automatically register such children as U.S. citizens.

She argued that this practice contradicts international and national law, the policy of U.S. President Donald Trump, and the parents’ will.

“The deep state in the United States has created a new problem to pressure Russian diplomats, disregarding the fact that this is becoming a glaring example of the decline of the so-called ‘American democracy’,” she said.

Ms Zakharova stated that U.S. legislation clearly excluded the right of diplomats’ children to obtain U.S. citizenship through “birthright citizenship”.

In her view, the U.S. State Department aims to undermine Mr Trump’s anti-immigration policies and the process of eliminating “friction points” in Russia-U.S. relations.

The U.S. is also using the children’s citizenship as a pretext to put pressure on Russian diplomats, she added.

“The Russian side does not recognise the imposition of American citizenship on Russian citizens born in the families of our diplomatic, administrative, technical and consular staff in the United States. We will demand that the Americans confirm that the newborn is not under U.S. jurisdiction,” she said.

(Xinhua/NAN)