Good tenants are so rare these days. Bloomberg reports that Russia is demanding that the US pay $9 million (R60 million) in unpaid rent on the ambassador's residence, a mansion in central Moscow known as Spaso House.

Built in 1914, the New Empire-style mansion features a main hall that is 25 metres long with a domed ceiling and houses what is believed to be Moscow's largest house chandelier, made of Russian crystal.

Interfax cited Ivan Sergeyev of the foreign ministry as saying the world's largest economy had signed a 10-year lease on the house in July 1985, at 25 roubles (then about R140) a square metre 
.

The rent now totals 72.50 roubles (R16.79) for the entire building. It has plunged in dollar terms because of Russia's hyperinflation in the first half of the 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the redenomination of the rouble in 1997.

The US refused to renegotiate the lease, Sergeyev said, and Russia was not accepting payments under the current lease, due to expire next year.