RTMon, 26 Mar 2018 14:29 UTC
© Leah Millis / Reuters
President Donald Trump has ordered the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats and the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle. It comes in response to the poisoning of Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, which the UK has blamed on Russia.
The move follows major diplomatic pressure by the UK on its allies to follow their lead in expelling Russian diplomats. The Russian embassy in Washington had previously urged Trump not to heed the "fake news" on Skripal's poisoning.
British Prime Minister Theresa May has accused Moscow of being behind the poisoning of the former spy Skripal and his daughter in the town of Salisbury in early March.
Of the 60 diplomats expelled, 12 formed part of the Russian mission to the United Nations. In a statement, US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said the 12 Russians in question had "abused their privilege of residence" in the US and had "engaged in espionage activities that are adverse to our national security."
Haley said that the Russian diplomats had used the UN as "a safe haven for dangerous activities within our own borders."
During a summit in Brussels last week, the 28 EU leaders agreed with Britain's assertion that it is "highly likely" that Russia was responsible for the attack on Skripal.
Members of the EU numbering 14 have also decided to expel Russian diplomats following Britain's lead. Moscow has always denied playing any role in the attack, and offered to cooperate with the investigation into the incident. Britain has declined, however, to send samples of the chemical agent used on Skripal and his daughter to Moscow.
Comment: Russian Senator Vladimir Dzhabarov called the decision
illegal, adding that Moscow vows to expel at least 60 U.S. diplomats in response. Fourteen
lapdog EU states are following the leader:
Germany, France and Poland have expelled four diplomats each, respective foreign ministries confirmed on Monday. The Netherlands and Denmark will expel two diplomats each, their foreign ministries said.
Italy is expelling two Russian diplomats, while Lithuania has expelled three, according to that country's foreign minister. The Czech Republic will expel the same number.
Meanwhile, Latvia is expelling one diplomat and an Aeroflot employee, and Estonia's foreign minister has confirmed the country is expelling a military attaché at the Russian embassy. Finland is expelling one diplomat.
Ukraine has also jumped on board and announced it is expelling as many as 13 diplomats.
The Russian Embassy's
call for restraint and common sense has fallen on deaf ears:
"They have already put all the blame on us while the investigation is still ongoing and the results are yet to be published... Moreover, they go the extra mile and suggest to punish Russia," the embassy said. "Time after time we keep proving that every lunge against us will be parried tit-for-tat. Every suggestion to 'punish Russia' is a suggestion to at least self-inflict a wound."
Oh well, just another indelible stain on the U.S. and UK's already tainted reputation. As the Russians point out, they're really hurting no one but themselves in the long run.
Update: The nations who so far have not jumped on the village idiot's bandwagon: Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia. Here's what the reps of
Austria and Luxembourg had to say:
Speaking to Sputnik following the announcements by various EU and other European countries, Austrian government spokesman Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal said that Vienna "will not take any measures at the national level, we will not expel diplomats.
"The reason for this is that we intend to keep open channels of dialogue with Russia. Austria is a neutral country and a kind of bridge between East and West. But we support the decision to recall the EU ambassador from Moscow."
Other countries were already exercising caution before the Monday announcements. Ahead of a meeting with Theresa May at a European Council summit dinner in Brussels last week, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras stressed the need for an investigation into the Skripal case before jumping to conclusions. "We have to express our solidarity to the UK, to the British people, but at the same time we need to investigate," Tsipras said.
Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, a former criminal lawyer, said he wanted to hear what May had to say at the summit before making a decision.
Meanwhile, the head of Germany's Die Linke party, Andreas Maurer, told Sputnik that the German position on the case of Sergei Skripal should not have been solely guided by Berlin's solidarity with the European Union. Berlin chose to expel four Russian diplomats.
"I am looking now, that the Foreign Minister of Germany [Heiko Maas] is talking about the decision as a sign of solidarity - this decision on the part of Germany to send out four diplomats. This is of course, in my opinion, you have to very critically look at this. In this regard, the decision should not be taken because of some sort of solidarity. Whatever problems or errors there may have been, the position of Germany should not have been built upon solidarity," Maurer said.
Maurer went on to note that Russia would respond with the expulsion of diplomats from all of those countries, adding that such moves will not lead to a normalization of ties. "We all know that Russia is obliged to reply to the expulsion of its diplomats. I am certain that German diplomats, which are now in Russia, will also be expelled from the country. We know that this always happens. This will not lead to solving the problem," he said.
Spies, conspirators, dodgy rulers, esoteric manipulations . . . some of the more recent history of the games at play behind the facade of the ruling classes, monarchy and systematic imperialism that so many seem so preoccupied with...
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