A dispute over diplomatic missions has been raging between Russia and the USA for months: At the end of last year, Moscow’s diplomatic holiday homes near Washington and New York were confiscated, and Russian diplomats were expelled. As a countermeasure, the US had to reduce the number of its diplomats in Russia from around 1,200 to 455. The feud reached its climax last Saturday when the US government took control of the Russian consulate in San Francisco and two buildings in Washington and New York took over. Moscow sees the move as a hostile takeover of its diplomatic assets.
Even President Vladimir Putin could not hide his outrage at the confiscation. At a press conference, he badmouthed his opponents in Washington. “The Americans have the right to reduce the number of our diplomatic missions. But the whole thing happened in such a bold way. Our American partners can’t exactly boast of that,” Putin told the assembled press.
“It’s difficult to have a dialogue with people who confuse Austria with Australia,” the Kremlin chief pointed out. “There’s nothing you can do about it. That seems to be the level of political culture of a certain part of the American establishment,” he added sarcastically.
Putin was apparently referring to an incident that took place in 2007. At that time, former US President George Bush thanked Australian Prime Minister John Howard for visiting the “Austrian troops” in Afghanistan. He probably confused the English terms “Austrian” and “Australian”. A cause for amusement to this day.
“Americans really are a great nation if they can put up with so many people with such a low level of political education,” Putin noted, not without glee.
However, the Kremlin boss avoided direct criticism of the current US president. When asked by a reporter whether he was disappointed in Trump, Putin naively called it: “He’s not my bride, and I’m neither his bride nor his groom,” he replied, causing laughter. They are both statesmen and pursue the interests of their countries. They bear great responsibility for international security, the Russian news agency Tass quoted Putin as saying.
In the dispute over the diplomatic missions, however, he reserves the right to take further steps against US embassy staff. Russia can further limit the number of US diplomats but will not do so now, Putin said in Xiamen, China on Tuesday. Both countries have currently sent 455 diplomats. But out of 455 Russians in the United States, 155 worked at the United Nations. Putin calculated that the US missions in Russia could be reduced by this number.
This text was published on September 7, 2017.
