On Thursday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the US is not cooperating with Russia to resolve a longstanding diplomatic dispute.
Over the past few years, the US has been expelling Russian diplomats and setting restrictions on Russia’s embassy and consulates. Moscow has responded in kind, leaving fewer diplomats in each country as tensions between the two powers are soaring.
Ryabkov said that while the US and Russia have been engaged in talks on other issues, they remained deadlocked on the diplomatic dispute. “Overall this whole bloc of issues is at a deep impasse and practically cannot be resolved because of the lack of US cooperation,” he said.
In the latest move, the US said 27 Russian diplomats have to leave the country by the end of January. The US says the diplomats only have to leave because their visas are expiring, but Moscow views it as an expulsion since it was impossible for the Russians to renew their visas due to delays. Russia said it will expel US diplomats in retaliation.
In October, Ryabkov discussed the dispute with Victoria Nuland, a notorious Russia hawk who is now serving as Biden’s undersecretary of state for political affairs. During the meeting, Ryabkov offered a mutual lifting of the diplomatic restrictions, but Nuland didn’t agree.
Our “government” is nuts. Our government? Military Industrial Complex, Wall Street banks, corporations. The three real branches of our government.
This is just fallout from US domestic politics. Hillary blamed Putin, and Trump had to show he was tough on Russia, so both sides needed a diplomatic breakdown. They got it. Oddly, it did not really help either one domestically. It just poisoned our international standing on things like Iran, North Korea, and climate change.
I really wish someone would do something (peacefully of course) to move things forward. Stalemates are terribly boring and unproductive.
it has begin
Even allowing the poisonous Russophobe to remain as a US diplomat shows the mockery the US has for discussions in good faith. Obama started the Russian expulsions and stealing of Russia ‘s US properties as soon as Trump won the 2016 election and it has cascaded ever since.