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Article snippet: Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Tom Perez on Wednesday attacked President Trump over reports his administration may return two Russian compounds in the U.S. that were seized by former President Obama as a punishment for election meddling. “[Former] President Obama closed those two compounds because of Russia’s attacks on our democracy,” he said in a statement. “Trump’s willingness to give them back shows where his allegiances are: with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and not with the American people." The Washington Post on Wednesday reported that Trump’s administration is leaning towards returning a pair of Russian diplomatic compounds in Maryland and New York. Obama seized the properties from Kremlin control in December as retribution for its meddling in the 2016 presidential race. The former president also ejected 35 Russian intelligence operatives from America amid findings by the U.S. intelligence community that Moscow sough to tilt last year’s election in Trump’s favor. A former adviser to Obama told The Post that they had “no intention” of returning the compounds to Russia. Trump’s administration had initially proposed returning the compounds to the Russians in exchange for permission to resume construction on a U.S. consulate in St. Petersburg. The Post reported that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told top Russian diplomats last month that the return of the compounds no longer hinged on completing the consulate. The FBI and at four cong... Link to the full article to read more