M.N.: Those FSB security guards by the embassies are not in a position to determine if the visitor "was a spy or not", they just carry out their superior's orders. This pattern of attempted intimidations and provocations against the diplomats generates a deep sense of disgust for this recent style, which is apparently consistent with the other policies, of the Russian "diplomatic line" of Intelligence Services, specifically the FSB. These actions, some of them - criminal, have a smell of the fascist degeneration. What is Mr. Lavrov's response?
Look into this, Mr. Putin! It is a shame! To say the least.
In the early morning of June 6, a uniformed Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) guard attacked and beat up a U.S. diplomat who was trying to enter the the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, The Washington Post reports with reference to four U.S. officials.
According to the WP journalist Josh Rogin, the previously unreported attack occurred just steps from the entrance to the U.S. Embassy complex. The diplomat suffered a broken shoulder, among other injuries, but then flown out of Russia to receive urgent medical attention, the author states.
The State Department in Washington called in Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak to complain about the incident.
The motive for the attack remains unclear, Josh Rogin says. Spokesmen for the both the State Department and the CIA declined to make a comment on the incident or whether or not the diplomat was in fact an undercover U.S. spy.
If the U.S. diplomat attacked on June 6 was not a spy, U.S. officials have no other explanation for why the FSB guard was trying to stop him from entering the embassy, the journalist sums up.
In his
recent investigation into the issue, Josh Rogin states that Russia keeps harrassing U.S. diplomats all over Europe saying that such acts ‘range from the weird to the downright scary’.
At the same time, he writes that many of the recent acts of intimidation by Russian security services have crossed the line into apparent criminality:
“… Russian intruders had broken into their homes late at night, only to rearrange the furniture or turn on all the lights and televisions, and then leave. One diplomat reported that an intruder had defecated on his living room carpet.”
Giving the reason for the U.S. poor response to such barbaric behaviour, the investigative journalist quotes the members of Congress involved in diplomacy with Europe who put it down to Obama administration’s attempt to project a veneer of positive U.S.-Russian relations that ‘doesn’t really exist’.
Belsat.eu, following the Washington Post
Secretary of State John Kerry last discussed the matter with Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 24, according to State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau.
"We see an increase and we take it seriously," she told reporters at a press briefing.
Trudeau said that harassment of diplomats by Russian security agents and traffic police had been an issue over the past two years but did not detail any incidents nor why Kerry brought up the matter with Putin.
Other Western embassies had reported the same behavior toward their diplomats stationed in Moscow, Trudeau added.
Trudeau would not discuss specific incidents first reported by
The Washington Post on Monday
, including breaking into the homes of embassy personnel and moving around contents.
Moscow, however, has charged that Washington has also engaged in problematic behavior.
Last week the Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Moscow has "felt a significant increase in pressure on the Russian Embassy and consulates general of our country in the United States."
According to Zakharova, staff members of Russia's consulate missions abroad "regularly become the objects of provocations by the American secret services, face obstacles in making official contacts and other restrictions," including travel.
Trudeau dismissed Russia's claims of U.S. harassment of its diplomats as "without foundation" and said American diplomats are faced with same restrictions as Russian diplomats under the terms of a reciprocal agreement.
Officials at the Russian Embassy did not respond to a request for comment.
"Harassment of U.S. diplomats by host government services is a longstanding problem that occurs inside Russia," according to Trudeau. But she said an increase in incidents over the past several years appears to correspond to the imposition of Western sanctions against Russia over the crisis in Ukraine.
The Putin-Kerry conversation came after Washington in January stripped five of six Russian honorary consuls of credentials to retaliate for harassment of its diplomats in Moscow.
In response, Russia's Foreign Ministry accused the United States of provoking Russian diplomats in the United States and elsewhere.
Honorary consuls are typically U.S. citizens or green card holders who perform consular services outside Washington on behalf of a foreign government.
Trudeau couldn't rule out similar harassment by Russians of U.S. diplomats in other countries, but she said that she didn't have specifics of such cases occurring.
No comments:
Post a Comment