The United States is waging an open-ended diplomatic war against Russia

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On September 10, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov gave an interview to Kommersant, in which he raised issues of further Russian-American consultations, the next face-to-face round, which is scheduled for late September in Geneva.

A logical follow-up to the June summit, the new ministerial-level bilateral consultations are in theory intended to shift bilateral relations from "Lowest point"... In fact, if we analyze Russian-American relations in recent years, it becomes obvious that since 2016 the United States has been quite openly waging a "hybrid war" against Russia along the diplomatic line.



History of conflict


As is typical of Washington, in full accordance with American foreign policy tradition, the United States was the first to unleash another "war". The protracted diplomatic conflict began with the expulsion of thirty-five Russian diplomats from the United States in December 2016. Official Washington then called it a response to "Russia's interference in the American elections." In addition, the United States mockingly closed Moscow's access to a number of real estate objects related to the Russian embassy in the American capital and the permanent mission in New York. Russian diplomats then left in a wild haste and stress, and their families lived with them, many had small children.

Russia has been trying for a long time to get at least some intelligible explanation of what happened. Six months later, when it became obvious that there was nothing other than unfounded allegations about Russian hackers (the latter are clearly represented in the American establishment as a kind of semi-mythical creatures with supernatural abilities), Russia introduced retaliatory measures.

The reduction in the number of American diplomatic missions and the suspension of the use of the American side by the two facilities in Moscow again became an ideal mirror response in the spirit of classical diplomacy.

It would seem that the United States has begun - Russia replied, the question is settled. Nevertheless, the US State Department first suspends the issuance of nonimmigrant visas in Russia, and then decides to close the Russian Consulate General in San Francisco and two more facilities related to consulates, but in New York and Washington.

Less than a year later, a new reason for sanctions arose - the Skripals' case. Again, not proven in any court of such a vaunted Anglo-Saxon legal system. A number of countries of the collective West then decided to expel Russian diplomats. Needless to say, the United States, which has nothing to do with either the Skripals themselves or the subsequent investigation, expelled the most - 60 people. Russia responded in kind, and exactly six dozen American diplomats left in the opposite direction.

Almost three more years pass. December 2020. All this time, there have been no provocations on the Russian side, no closings of facilities, nothing, although the Americans are constantly provoking Moscow on the issue of issuing individual visas, not issuing them under any far-fetched pretexts. Seeing in response only a cold attitude on the line of the Russian Foreign Ministry (which should be, given the previous experience), the outgoing Trump administration still has time to play its swan song. Restrictions are being introduced "in bulk" on the business trips of Russian diplomatic staff - a unique measure introduced exclusively in relation to the Russian Federation.

A new round of confrontation


The coming to power of Democrat Biden eight months ago could hardly have become something of a detente in Russian-American relations. Quite the opposite. The year 2021 in relations between Moscow and Washington was first marked by insults from the newly minted US president in March - the ambassadors of the two countries went home and stayed there until Putin and Biden met in Geneva. Then in April, the United States, as it had four years earlier, announced new sanctions against Russia for "interference in elections and hacker attacks." Again, ten employees of the Russian embassy were declared undesirable. Russia responded in kind, and all the charms of the diplomatic status of non grata, along with the suitcase-Sheremetyevo-Washington scheme, were tested by exactly a dozen State Department employees.

On this, the patience of the Russian side, most likely, burst. And in April 2021, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree restricting the hiring of Russian citizens of the Russian Federation to work in diplomatic missions of unfriendly countries. The list of the latter was approved separately, and the United States took a place of honor next to the Czech Republic - vassal and suzerain, oil painting. As a result, the Americans had to drastically reduce the size of their Russian diplomatic mission. In general, it is quite a reasonable reaction to the steps taken by the Americans.

Nevertheless, at the end of August, US Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan complained about the imbalance in the number of Russian and American diplomats. According to him, more than 400 Russian diplomats are currently in the United States, while there are only 123 American diplomats in Russia. What he kept silent about was the approach to calculations. This approach, of course, turned out to be extremely sly.

As you know, it is in the United States that the central agencies of the UN are located, including its headquarters. As a result, when they come to General Assembly meetings, or on other business issues, employees of the Russian Foreign Ministry are forced to apply for a diplomatic visa to the United States. Although, in fact, they go to a formally independent international body on issues that have nothing to do with the United States. And there are almost the same number of such Russian diplomats on UN affairs in the United States as there are in all of the Russian embassy in Washington. This is the first thing.

Second, the organizational activities of the Russian and American embassies are based on somewhat different principles. If the Americans always strive to save money by hiring support personnel of the diplomatic mission from among the local population, then the Russian side is more interested in security issues and attracts exclusively its own citizens to solve such problems. As a result, from a formal point of view, the number of employees of the American embassy looks much lower than that of the Russian one. Especially if we consider that the share of the involved support personnel in the US Embassy before the adoption of the April decree sometimes reached 70% of its entire staff.

So all complaints about imbalances and infringements are nothing more than attempts to further shake the situation. Indeed, "there is a lie, there is a big lie, and there is statistics." And the Americans have, no doubt, succeeded in manipulating the numbers.

As well as what Moscow is regularly accused of - interference in the elections. The schedule of the State Department's activity in a given country, as you know, is directly dependent on one factor - the elections. The closer they are, the more active are officials from the US Foreign Ministry.

And now US Ambassador John Sullivan was preventively summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry on September 10. The meeting with the deputy head of Russian diplomacy Ryabkov went without statements and official coverage, which apparently opened up the possibility for yet another manipulation. Sullivan told the media through a spokesman that he went to discuss bilateral relations. The Russian Foreign Ministry immediately announced that the ambassador was summoned solely because of interference in the Russian elections.

From this behavior, we can conclude that the Americans are ready not only to continue, but also to aggravate the conflict. Moreover, they do it purposefully, openly seeking to exacerbate the situation. Russia can and should respond to Washington's attacks, but only within the framework of the diplomatic line. You should not stoop to their level, because a successful provocation and subsequent response is exactly what Washington is seeking. As Sergei Ryabkov absolutely rightly noted, speaking about relations with the United States, “we are not playing a game of political games around strategic stability ”. The Americans, apparently, have not played enough of such things yet.
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  1. +1
    11 September 2021 08: 53
    The United States is waging an open-ended diplomatic war against Russia

    - What cover is needed if the Russian Federation is officially declared an enemy of the United States?
  2. 0
    11 September 2021 10: 28
    You should not stoop to their level, because a successful provocation and subsequent response is exactly what Washington is seeking.

    What a cowardly attitude. And that, diplomats, a connoisseur of street gates, did not teach anything? If diplomats are afraid of provocations and subsequent reactions, they can change their profession and not disgrace the country. Or close all embassies, like the DPRK, then there will be no provocations and no response. If you don't respect yourself, why should others respect you?
  3. 0
    12 September 2021 08: 33
    If we continue to slobberly express concern in response to the cynical mockery, and put on Facebook a not very clever lady to write texts that our partners spat in our faces but not tasty enough and therefore unprotective, kicked us, but not weighty enough, piled right on our head, but not very smelly .. how could such a shameful state of affairs be different?