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Trump's Russian mates indulge in tit-for-tat diplomacy…

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Kiwithrottlejockey
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« on: September 12, 2017, 09:25:01 pm »


from the Los Angeles Times....

Moscow considering deeper cuts to U.S. diplomatic staff in Russia

By SABRA AYRES and TRACY WILKINSON | 11:50AM PDT - Monday, September 11, 2017

A Russian police officer patrols a street in front of the US Embassy in Moscow. — Photograph: Kirill Kudryavtsev/Agence France-Presse/GettyImages.
A Russian police officer patrols a street in front of the US Embassy in Moscow. — Photograph: Kirill Kudryavtsev/Agence France-Presse/GettyImages.

MOSCOW is threatening to order an additional 155 American diplomatic personnel removed from missions in Russia in a further escalation of the cycle of retaliation between the two world powers.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that Russia was seriously considering the additional cuts, although it had not yet made a formal petition. A senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the Trump administration was aware of the possibility.

Earlier this year, Moscow ordered the U.S. to slash its staff in Russia by nearly two-thirds, to 455 people, by September 1st. In response, the U.S. ordered Russia to shutter its consulate in San Francisco and two trade offices, in Washington, D.C., and New York.

Washington and Moscow are basing their tit-for-tat on differing interpretations of “parity”, that principle that each government have an identical numerical presence in the other's country. That was the justification Moscow used to cut the U.S. staff to 455, the same number Russia had here. The U.S. then said closing the San Francisco consulate meant each country would have three consulates.

Now, Russia said it was being too generous because the number 455 included staff at its mission at the United Nations: 155 people. That number of American employees in Russia may now need to go, Lavrov suggested.

“If they have taken parity as a criterion … we will bring these conditions into full compliance with what is called parity,” Lavrov said at a news conference Monday in Amman, Jordan.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the administration continued to hold out hope that relations will improve.

“We don't want to continue this kind of diplomatic tit-for-tat,” she said. “There are far too many areas where we can, we hope we can, cooperate with Russia.” But asked about further cuts in staff, she said: “I'm not going to get into forecasting any potential Russian reaction.”

The cuts in staffing have crippled U.S. diplomatic functions in Russia, officials say. Visa processing, after a brief suspension, has been renewed but at a much slower pace and only in Moscow, not in the consulates in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg or Vladivostok.

The consulates canceled thousands of interview appointments for non-immigrant visa applicants on September 1st, and many Russians seeking visas to the U.S. are applying in neighboring countries, such as Ukraine.

In addition, the United States will be forced to turn to contractors for basic security services, the senior State Department official said. The official described the moves as taking a meat cleaver to the diplomatic mission in Russia.

Both governments acknowledge their relations, despite President Trump's professed admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, are severely deteriorated — although the two continue to work on some issues, such as the fight against terrorism, co-operation in Syria and possibly curbing the nuclear threat posed by North Korea.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is expected to meet with Lavrov this month on the margins of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, and the State Department's number-three official, under-secretary for political affairs Thomas Shannon, was in Helsinki, Finland, on Monday to talk with his Russian counterpart, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, about the embassies and other issues.

The current downward spiral began in the waning weeks of the Obama presidency, when the last administration ordered the expulsion of 35 Russian intelligence officials and seized two Russian compounds as punishment for the Kremlin's alleged meddling in the American election process.

Putin did not respond at the time, apparently waiting to see if relations would improve under Trump.

But in July, Congress overwhelmingly passed a new sanctions bill against Russian businesses and individuals, which Trump was forced to sign, albeit reluctantly.

Putin then ordered the first shearing of the American diplomatic corps, from about 1,200 to 455, though more than half of those removed, around 600, were locally hired Russian nationals. Two diplomatic compounds used by the U.S. Embassy staff were also taken back by the Russians, including a storage warehouse in Moscow and a summer cottage dacha in the northern part of the capital.

After Washington ordered closure of the additional offices in the U.S., Russians were further angered at inspections of the offices by U.S. security personnel, refusing an invitation to accompany them on the New York walk-through, although they did attend similar inspections in San Francisco and Washington.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the inspections were a “provocation,” while some Russian officials questioned the legality.

“Is it an attempt by the American security services to organize an anti-Russian provocation and, probably, to plant compromising materials into the building and then somehow find them inside?” Zakharova said at a briefing in Moscow.

At Monday's news conference in Amman, Lavrov said Russia was also considering placing some travel restrictions on U.S. diplomatic staff working in Russia. Currently, American diplomats may officially enter Russia at more entry points than Russians are allowed to use to enter the U.S. Russia might limit those entry points and the number of American diplomatic staff allowed to travel outside of the diplomatic mission zones.

Such restrictions would also be a move toward parity, Lavrov argued: Low- and mid-level Russian diplomats working in the U.S. have only a radius of 25 miles of free movement outside their diplomatic compounds. High-level Russian diplomats are allowed to travel freely.

All U.S. diplomatic staff are allowed to travel freely within Russia, a privilege Lavrov said was now under review.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters last week that Trump had personally approved the decision to take reprisals against Russia. But she added: “We want to halt the downward spiral and we want to move forward towards better relations.”


Special correspondent Sabra Ayres reported from Moscow, staff writer Tracy Wilkinson from Washington.

• Sabra Ayres is the Moscow correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, where she covers Russia and the former Soviet Union. Her diverse portfolio spans nearly two decades and several continents, with bylines from Afghanistan, the former Soviet Union, Europe and India. She is the winner of the 2016 Front Page Award for Best Foreign Correspondence. In 2016 she received a fellowship with the International Women's Media Foundation to research Russian soft power tactics in Europe. She covered the Ukraine crisis from the revolution on Kiev's Maidan square to the outbreak of war in the east of the country. Her work has been published in the Christian Science Monitor, Al Jazeera America, The Guardian, the Columbia Journalism Review, The New Republic, the International Herald Tribune, and the Daily Telegraph, among others.

• Tracy Wilkinson has covered wars, crises and daily life on three continents. Her career began with United Press International, where she covered the Contra war in Nicaragua. She moved to the Los Angeles Times in 1987, first as a writer on the Metro staff, then as a foreign correspondent based in San Salvador. In 1995, she moved to Vienna, where she covered the war in the Balkans, winning the George Polk Award in 1999, and then to Jerusalem. From there, she went to Rome, where she covered two popes and did several stints in Iraq. In 2008, she became Mexico bureau chief, where her coverage was part of a team Overseas Press Club Award and a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award. Wilkinson was also the 2014 winner of the Maria Moors Cabot Award for coverage of Latin America. She earned her bachelor's degree from Vanderbilt University. Her book The Vatican's Exorcists: Driving Out the Devil in the 21st Century has been translated into a dozen languages. She joined the L.A. Times' Washington, D.C., bureau in 2015 to cover foreign affairs.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-fg-russia-embassies-20170911-story.html
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Donald
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« Reply #1 on: September 12, 2017, 09:30:14 pm »

Ktj....."White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters last week that Trump had personally approved the decision to take reprisals against Russia."

..yes good to have a president with balls.....unlike OH-bummar, hoisting the white flag and running like a scared rabbit🙄
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Kiwithrottlejockey
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« Reply #2 on: September 12, 2017, 09:43:21 pm »


Trump was going to reinstate the closed Russian missions in America.

Except that both Republicans and Democrats ganged up on him and passed a bill with such a massive majority that they virtually over-ruled Trump's veto before he could exercise it. So Trump reluctantly signed the bill so he didn't look like a total dork.

Kinda says it all about Trump....by the way it was Obama (yep, I take note you are still too thick-as-dog-shit to know how to spell it correctly) who actually had the balls to take action against the Russians for interfering in the American election, those same Russians Trump was supporting. Which is why Trump is so shit-scared of the special investigator who is slowly, and methodically closing in on the TRUTH of Trump's collusion with a hostile foreign power, then his attempts to pervert the course of an investigation by firing the head of the FBI.

But I don't expect you to understand it, because you are as dumb as dog shit.
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Donald
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« Reply #3 on: September 12, 2017, 09:47:34 pm »

Sounds like you bin watching to much fake news again sonny😉
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Kiwithrottlejockey
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« Reply #4 on: September 12, 2017, 09:50:39 pm »


It's all documented on the White House website.

I guess this means that you're just a stupid arse-licker who is too dumb to comprehend the truth.

I bet you'd shit your pants if you came up against any Ruskies.
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Donald
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« Reply #5 on: September 12, 2017, 10:08:51 pm »

Well I didn't shit my pants when I was over there😉
I know Russians well enough to know that some of the ladies are very good looking and have nymphomaniac tendencies😜...and the men are loud , drunken arseholes....😉

...how did you find the Russian ladies when you were there?
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Kiwithrottlejockey
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« Reply #6 on: September 12, 2017, 11:44:37 pm »


Ah, yes....full-of-shit and pretence.....yet again!!

Does your wife know you have these fantasies?

Or is she in the dark about your mental illness?
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Donald
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« Reply #7 on: September 13, 2017, 05:45:04 am »

Yeah....thought you would be green with envy....😜

...but try not to let it fuck with your mind🙄
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aDjUsToR
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« Reply #8 on: September 13, 2017, 05:54:31 am »

If you skip the loony left bullshit conspiracy theories on Trump/Russia(which they STILL haven't coughed up a shred of evidence for) it's reasonable to see Trump saw Putin as a potential ally but he did also have a sensible level of wariness. Pity the left media has lost their minds and can't see this. Perhaps they are playing to their customers (far left space cadets). 😁
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Donald
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« Reply #9 on: September 13, 2017, 05:58:40 am »

Haha
...and the suckers come..and the suckers pay subscriptions😳
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aDjUsToR
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« Reply #10 on: September 13, 2017, 06:18:40 am »

Haha.Looks like Hillary has lost her mind over losing the election too. Has been talking some pretty strange stuff.
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aDjUsToR
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« Reply #11 on: September 13, 2017, 06:19:55 am »

"Sour grapes", as some would say 😁
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Donald
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« Reply #12 on: September 13, 2017, 06:22:56 am »

Adj....."Haha.Looks like Hillary has lost her mind over losing the election too. Has been talking some pretty strange stuff."


...yup...we really dodged a bullet there😉
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Kiwithrottlejockey
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« Reply #13 on: September 15, 2017, 01:42:59 am »


from The Washington Post....

Russia kicks off war games as U.S., NATO watch anxiously

Western leaders have expressed concern about the size and scope of the Zapad exercises.

By DAVID FILIPOV | 4:02AM EDT - Thursday, September 14, 2017

GAME ON!

MINSK, BELARUS — Russia on Thursday kicked off a week-long military exercise with its ally Belarus that has its NATO neighbors and the United States watching anxiously, but actually addresses one of Moscow's primary fears.

Shortly after Russia's Defense Ministry said the war games dubbed “Zapad”, or “West”, had begun, it announced that elements of its First Tank Army had been “put on alert” and moved into Belarus for the exercise. Airborne units stationed in Russia have also been put on alert and are getting ready to join the drills, the ministry said.

At a time of renewed Cold War-style tension between Russia and NATO, the symbolism couldn't have been more striking. The Soviet-led Warsaw Pact once used the Zapad exercises to prepare for war with the West; that tank army's job was to smash through NATO lines, including 300,000 U.S. troops.

The Russian announcement on Thursday was accompanied by a reassurance repeated by Moscow for weeks, that the current exercise is “of an entirely defensive nature and is not aimed at any other states”. The Russian scenario for the games is a separatist incursion into Belarus spurred on by three imaginary countries, Veishnoriya, Lubeniya and Vesbasriya — in which NATO observers and others recognize Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.

Concerns in the Western alliance were raised by the apparent difference between official Russian figures about the size of the exercise — 12,700 troops and 680 pieces of military equipment, including 138 tanks — and Western estimates, based on troop and equipment movements,  that the number could range from 70,000 to as many as 100,000 participants.


Russian ships take part in the Zapad 2013 war games in the Baltic Sea. — Photograph: Alexei Druzhinin/RIA Novosti/Kremlin/Reuters.
Russian ships take part in the Zapad 2013 war games in the Baltic Sea. — Photograph: Alexei Druzhinin/RIA Novosti/Kremlin/Reuters.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko, will appear on the sidelines of the drills this weekend, a sign of how important the drills are to the Russian leader, who has vowed to prevent “color revolutions” in the former Soviet region similar to the 2014 rebellions that established a pro-Western government in Ukraine.

The exercises — an update of Zapad war games held in 2009 and 2013 — show off a military that Putin has transformed into an effective force that has deployed to Syria and Ukraine in recent years.

The story line of the exercise sees militant groups linked to Veishnoriya and backed by the West cross the Belarus border, similar to the way “little green men”, widely assumed to be Russian soldiers, appeared in Ukraine in 2014 prior to Moscow's annexation of Crimea. The Russian forces cut off the insurgents access to the sea and air to prevent the Western coalition from providing backing to the separatists.

Western military officials have expressed concern that Zapad 2017 will serves as a “Trojan horse”, allowing Moscow to leave behind some of the military personnel and equipment it deployed for the drills. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told The Washington Post last week that Russia could build trust and head off possible accidents by being more transparent.


Protesters in Minsk, Belarus, take part in a rally on September 8th against the upcoming Zapad 2017 military exercises. — Photograph: Tatyana Zenkovich/European Pressphoto Agency/Agencia EFE.
Protesters in Minsk, Belarus, take part in a rally on September 8th against the upcoming Zapad 2017 military exercises.
 — Photograph: Tatyana Zenkovich/European Pressphoto Agency/Agencia EFE.


In Latvia, Foreign Minister ­Edgars Rinkevics told The Post that the country's leaders are “not panicking” but are being “cautious” because “what we are seeing is that the exercises are of an offensive nature, they are exercising access and area denial, they are exercising against at least four NATO member states under the pretext that they are fighting [separatists].”

NATO, which has been conducting its own exercises in Europe this summer, has stationed four battalions — including U.S. troops — in the Baltic states and Poland.

Western officials in the Baltics last week said they saw the games as a rehearsal of the capability to seal off Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, and deny access to the Baltic Sea to NATO forces attempting to come to their rescue. They also see a larger strategic goal: to demonstrate to U.S. and NATO leaders the high cost of defending the Baltics, and thus bringing into question the viability of the alliance.

In Belarus, the country's small opposition, which fears Moscow could leave its troops in order to head off any attempt to remove Lukashenko from power, last week held a protest over the presence the Russian military.


Ishaan Tharoor in Washington and Michael Birnbaum in Brussels contributed to this report.

• David Filipov is The Washington Post's bureau chief in Moscow, focusing on Russia and the republics of the former Soviet Union. He previously reported for The Boston Globe from Boston, Russia, Iraq and Afghanistan.

__________________________________________________________________________

Related to this topic:

 • VIDEO: Russia and Belarus hold joint military exercise

 • What you need to know about Russia's huge military exercise

 • Fear and confidence in the face of Russian war games


https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/russian-war-games-aim-to-head-off-another-color-revolution/2017/09/14/53aa93d8-9896-11e7-af6a-6555caaeb8dc_story.html
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Donald
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« Reply #14 on: September 15, 2017, 07:29:30 am »

We need to keep a close eye on Russia...they have a record of invading their neighbouring countries by stealth 😳

....we need to understand that Putin is an arsehole....it's where socialism leads to😳
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Kiwithrottlejockey
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« Reply #15 on: September 15, 2017, 10:47:57 am »

....we need to understand that Putin is an arsehole....it's where socialism leads to


Is that why Donald Trump looks up to Putin so much?

Is that why Donald Trump has heaped so much praise on Putin during the presidential election campaign and since?

There's a shitload of video footage of Trump doing that.

A case of one arsehole loving another arsehole?




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Donald
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« Reply #16 on: September 15, 2017, 02:55:51 pm »

.....that was only so that Putin would help getting elected dummy....🙄

Jeeezz I wish you would keep up...don't you read the papers😉

..is it a prerequisite of all socialists to be as thick as pig shit...or is that just for rail labourers😳
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