Thread: US expels Russian diplomats, imposes sanctions for hacking

One question asked and replied to during this press conference, regarding foreign diplomatic activities in Russia.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s statement and answers to media questions at a joint news conference with Foreign Minister of the Republic of Serbia Nikola Selakovic,

Moscow, April 16, 2021

"Question:

Today Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov laid out Russia’s position on response measures to US Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan in Moscow. What is the gist of these measures? When will employees of Russian diplomatic missions leave Washington? Will Russia’s response be equivalent? When will Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov return to Washington? Will he return soon or not at all in the current conditions?
Sergey Lavrov:

Anatoly Antonov continues consultations. The situation is quite complicated and it is necessary to analyse it in detail, all the more so since some things in Washington are not entirely comprehensible. Today, Yury Ushakov also recommended that Mr Sullivan travel to his capital and hold serious, detailed consultations.

Literally right after the news conference, we will issue the Foreign Ministry’s statement on measures that were approved by President of Russia Vladimir Putin in response to Washington’s openly hostile, utterly unprovoked actions towards Moscow, Russian citizens, individuals and companies, and our financial system.

We have long been telling the Americans that the disparity in the numerical strength of diplomatic missions of Russia in the US and the US in Russia is unacceptable. We have discussed this topic for many years. Instead of looking for mutually acceptable, compromise solutions, the US merely obstructed the operations of our Embassy, consulates-general and the Russian mission at the UN.

In accordance with the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations and Russian law, including the Labour Code, we are initiating a process to stop the practice of hiring citizens of Russia and third countries at American diplomatic missions. This practice is fairly widespread and used by the Americans on a large scale. We do not engage in this practice, so we are introducing parity on this issue.

The second disparity in this area is as follows: in addition to their embassy and consular personnel the Americans send several hundreds of employees on short-term trips to Russia every year. In this way, they substantially increase (double or more) their capacity to work in Russia, with goals that are not always above board. We are well aware of this. Now we are putting a stop to the practice of uncontrolled and unlimited short-term trips by Department of State employees for work at US diplomatic missions in Russia. We will suggest parity in this respect, say, 10 employees going from Russia to the US and 10 from the US to Russia per year.

Speaking about the personnel disparity, I must mention another problem that is quite serious. In all, there are about 450 diplomatic and administrative employees of Russia in the US and of the US in Russia. Out of these 450, all Americans are distributed among the Embassy and the consulates-general. Our employees are affiliated with the Embassy, two consulates-general and the Russian Permanent Mission to the UN. The UN is not an office servicing bilateral relations between the US and Russia and has nothing to do with bilateral ties. Therefore, if we want parity, it would be correct not to count our employees with the UN mission – about 150 people – in the total number. In other words, we have 300 employees on the bilateral front in the US. If we are to continue this “exchange of courtesies”, we will ask the Americans to bring down the number of their diplomats involved in bilateral relations with Russia, to match the number of our employees in our Embassy and two consulates-general.

We have also wanted to regulate one more area for a long time but to no avail. Our countries have a memorandum of understanding on open ground. As for the Open Skies Treaty, a multilateral document, it is already hanging by a thread. The US has withdrawn from it and is not going to come back. As for the aforementioned bilateral memorandum on open ground, starting from a certain category of diplomats (advisers and below), it is necessary to notify the authorities of the host country when any of these employees are going to travel beyond a 25-mile radius around the city where their diplomatic mission is located. The Americans completely ignore the requirement to send such notifications. There was a recent incident when representatives of the military attache office travelled in central Russia without any notification. They simply ignored a question by an authorised representative and said they were not going to deal with this. We have decided to start the process of withdrawing from this memorandum. We will approach the trips of diplomats beyond the limits of their host cities on a case-by-case basis."

Ten diplomats were included on a list that was given to us with a request for them to leave the United States. We will respond in kind by proposing that 10 US diplomats leave Russia. Poland also announced the expulsion of our diplomats. We will respond accordingly as well.

Speaking about personalities, some time ago (before President Joe Biden announced the package the other day), the Americans added eight Russian government officials (from the Presidential Executive Office, the Prosecutor-General’s Office, etc.) to a sanctions list. Today we will publish a list of eight officials representing the upper echelons of the administration in Washington. They will be also included on our sanctions list.

Sectoral sanctions have been announced as regards Russian national debt and related transactions. For obvious reasons, we do not have comparable levers of influence on the US on such a scale. That said, our specialists think that the Russian economy can cope with this scale. I think this is what will happen. We have always found, and will find, a way out of any situation. We also have opportunities to impose painful measures on American business. We hold them in reserve.

There is one more measure. We will limit and suspend the activities of American foundations and NGOs on our territory. In reality, they are openly meddling in our domestic politics.

There is much talk about President Biden’s proposal to hold a bilateral summit. We have already responded positively to it. Now we are studying different aspects of this initiative."

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s statement and answers to media questions at a joint news conference with Foreign Minister of the Republic of Serbia Nikola Selakovic, Moscow, April 16, 2021 - News - The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation

I'm in sympathy with the Russian position on this and feel that our American friends are again being overly aggressive. The speed that both snubby and Harry jump on this is really quite telling.

I have a hard time time determining what the Americans are on about. Russian hacking during the last Presidential election? Are the Americans going to tell us that they have not done exactly the same thing with Russian internal politics? I hope these lofty individuals realize that there are many people outside the good old US of A see through the bullshit. Is this about Mr. Martyr McDeathwish, once again many non Russians see him as a little attention seeking prick. The US has no business meddling in Russian internal affairs which is exactly what they are doing. The additional sanctions, and ambassadorial downgrades? Games adolescents play.

As far as Crimea is concerned, the west has to realize that Crimea will never be returned to Ukraine nor should it imo. Just how fucking long is it going to take the west to understand this, how many more lives have to be lost, how many families destroyed? I have been waiting for years for the Russian and American sides to resolve their differences and move forward in a spirit of friendship and co-operation. All I see now is the opposite and quite frankly it very much pisses me off and I am sure I am not the only one sickened by the current situation.

The Americans are the aggressor and have been ever since the Berlin Wall came down. After the Wall came down, instead of being gracious in victory the Americans scrambled in a very unceremonious fashion to sign former Warsaw Pact countries to the NATO. Russian was, not surprisingly, forced onto the back foot at a time when the country lacked leadership. America was basically kicking the Soviet bear when it was down. The rest, as they say, is history.

Moving forward to the coup which removed Victor Yanukovych from office. A coup I might add that had American fingerprints all over it. A full autopsy has never been completed. But these were the days when dear old Hillary had just left the leadership at the State Department, she was probably the one who laid the groundwork for the coup. Enough already about that.

In any case I will rest my case. The Americans are the aggressor here and have been the aggressor since the fall of the Wall.

The Americans are apparently still using regime change as a policy tool. (I won't at this point mention the situation in Belarus).

I'm starting to wonder who is steering the ship as far as foreign policy is concerned ? I really do wonder and the more I wonder the more concerned I become.

I realize that I live in a country where I am free to discuss my views. That truth is never lost on me. I simply must stand in opposition to what is currently occurring especially around Ukraine related policies.

On a side note I just ran across the information that Zelensky's former and official occupation is that of a comedian. That almost perfectly ties this whole dog's breakfast together in a sort of tenuous way of course.