MOSCOW, July 21. /TASS/. Arrest of Russian diplomatic compounds in the United States was designed to make life at the White House unbearable, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with NBC News.

"I believe it was the act of desperation and a desire to leave something to his successor, which would be unrepairable as far as Russian-American relations are concerned. So it was not this administration’s act, it was an act designed, among other things which were promoted, to make the life of this administration absolutely unbearable," Lavrov said.

Lavrov pointed out that the history of the United States says the country was created through wars and seizures of property and land.

"But I never suspected that this would be done by a party which now represents a quite different philosophy," he noted. "By the way, when people say that the property was arrested and diplomats were expelled to punish Russia for meddling with the American election, don’t believe this crap, because the official note verbale which we received from the State Department said nothing about the reasons for which this property had been seized."

"So it’s just straight forward robbery, and international law is entirely on our side, and we would act on the basis of international law to get it back," the minister emphasized.