Farewell tree in the Kremlin

All employees of the US Embassy who have been in Moscow for more than three years must leave Russia by January 31, 2022, warned our Foreign Ministry represented by its official representative Maria Zakharova. And by July 1 of next year, another group of American diplomats will be deployed from our country. Thus, the children of the "ambassadors" will be able to go to their last farewell party in the Kremlin. Five years ago, the invitation to this symbolic event, sounded from the lips of Vladimir Putin, was a demonstration of Russia's peaceful policy in the midst of a diplomatic war with the United States. Today, such a step is unlikely to be appreciated on the other side of the ocean.

However, the Americans can still fix everything and stop the expulsion of their diplomats, since the Russian measure is nothing more than a symmetrical response to the actual expulsion of employees of our diplomatic missions in New York and Houston. 55 people should go home in two stages. The first group - 27 Russians - are already sitting on their suitcases. As soon as the State Department reconsiders its decision, there will be no Russian response, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov guaranteed. Otherwise - tit for tat, as is always the case in diplomatic practice. In recent years, Washington has become convinced that the "kindness" of Russia is not infinite and serves only the purpose of enlightening the opponent.

In general, the tactics of our diplomats often resemble the actions of a kind of psychiatrist, who condescendingly and affectionately looks at a patient who rages, vomits and flings, puts forward absurd demands, but who can be calmed down with patient explanations and still be encouraged to take constructive actions. In this sense, the sudden "wishlist" of the United States, due to which, in fact, the whole diplomatic fuss of recent times began, differ little from the behavior of patients with an unbalanced psyche. One gets the impression that Washington themselves do not know why they started a diplomatic confrontation out of the blue.

Its new round began in 2020, when the State Department unilaterally set a three-year limit on the duration of travel of Russian employees to the United States. Nothing like the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations is provided for, and, in fact, this is interference in the internal decisions of our diplomacy. Why should Moscow suddenly have to select those and not other employees for its own diplomatic mission? Moreover, the Americans do not introduce such innovations in relation to other countries. This means that the restriction is discriminatory and is a deliberate attempt to humiliate our country.

According to the Russian ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, American restrictions hit the families of Russian diplomats: a number of their spouses have had their accreditations taken away, their children are not given visas.

“We are facing a serious shortage of personnel,” the diplomat admitted.

So soon there will be no one to work in our consulates.

It is curious that the State Department is corny lying when it explains the three-year restrictions as an alleged response to Russia's actions.

Our Foreign Ministry has never applied such a criterion to the Americans and is forced to apply it now only as a mirror measure.

Outright lies on the part of the United States, alas, are becoming an acceptable political instrument.

Moreover, Russian diplomats at the UN are also under threat, said Dmitry Polyansky, the first deputy ambassador of the Russian Federation. Belonging to an international organization protects them partly, but not much. America has ceased to fulfill the obligations of the host country, is dropping the remnants of international prestige, but it does not seem to matter to it. The same Polyansky reasonably recalled that the issue of seizing Russian diplomatic property in the United States remains unresolved. Moscow has already sent 470 notes (!) To the State Department with the requirement to admit its representatives to the blocked real estate objects, but was refused. Unprecedented arbitrariness.

Let me remind you that the flywheel of the diplomatic war began to unfold even under the outgoing Barack Obama, when Russia was accused of interfering in the American elections. The "impostor" Trump caused a nervous reaction in the establishment, which got out of the situation in the usual way - blamed everything on an external enemy. Since then, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge. It turned out, for example, that there is no evidence of Russian interference. However, a series of reciprocal measures taken by both sides have already aggravated the situation so much that it is impossible to get out of the maelstrom. Russia offered to abandon all restrictions, but in response to silence. It seems that they got a taste of overseas.

A reasonable question: why is the United States doing all this? Alas, the public perplexity of our diplomats is rather forced. In fact, everyone, of course, understands everything. In principle, Washington does not want to talk with Russia on an equal footing. On those issues that are important to him, you can start a dialogue at any time. Even if sanctions, other prohibitions or restrictions have been introduced, they can be lifted at any time, exceptions made. Moscow will agree, because it feels responsibility. On all other fronts, one can continue to press, ignore, etc. This is how the world hegemon argues.

It is this tactic of two speeds that we are seeing now.

In fact, destroying diplomatic relations between the two countries, the State Department is at the same time conducting the necessary negotiations with Moscow.

On December 2, the head of the department Anthony Blinken and Sergey Lavrov met in Stockholm.

The main issue is known - strategic stability.

Translated from the diplomatic language, it is about how the world does not burn in a nuclear flame.

When Washington needs something, it does not put a spoke in its wheels.

And Moscow is right here, not refusing to engage in dialogue, including for its own purposes.

American nature, however, cannot be changed.

In secondary matters, the hegemon will certainly continue to freak out, breaking the rules that have developed over the decades.

It looks like diplomatic roughness is something that now has to live with.

Russia is ready to deport the Americans.

The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.