Paul Craig Roberts, Treasury Secretary, for Ronald Reagan Comments
If you don’t see that Washington is driving to war with Russia you are a dumbshit American
If you don’t see that Washington is driving to war with Russia you are
a dumbshit American
Stephan Lendman Tells It Like It Is
by Stephen Lendman
In response to the Trump administration’s illegal seizure and search of Russian diplomatic properties in San Francisco, a total violation of diplomatic immunity, Vladimir Putin responded to a reporter’s question, saying “Trump is not my bride, and I am not his bride or groom.”
He and other Russian officials remain understandably furious. US government hostility toward Russia is unrelenting.
At the weekly press briefing of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova commented on the deplorable action, mocking State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert’s explanation, including Nauert’s claim that Washington seeks normal relations with Moscow.
“How does the illegality that is happening on the territory of the Russian Federation building, which formerly housed the Russian General Consulate in San Francisco, contribute to normalizing the situation,” Zakharova asked?
“Why are agents of the US government whom we do not know and whom we have not invited violating our property for who knows what reason? Do these illegal intrusions also ‘contribute to the normalization of bilateral relations?’”
“Who sent them there? For what purpose? What are they doing there? Why do they feel like they can make themselves at home there? It is the property of the Russian Federation. What are US government agents doing there without permission from Russia’s head of mission?”
Washington’s action was unprecedented, a flagrant violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
“Diplomatic immunity and inviolability of diplomatic premises are enshrined in international law.” They remain unchanged even in times of “very acute crises,” Zakharova stressed.
“But how does one conduct a dialogue and build relations if Washington violates the agreements it has recognized?”
Host nations are legally obligated to respect and protect the diplomatic properties of other countries. Entering them for any reason requires consent from the head of mission. [PCR note: this is why the British cannot enter the Ecuadoran Embassy in London and, on Washington’s orders, seize Julian Assange. By violating Russian diplomatic immunity, is Washington trying to establish a precedent that allows the British to violate Eucadoran diplomaic immunity?]
FBI agents stormed into Russian diplomatic property lawlessly and recklessly, threatening to break down entrances if kept locked, operating like a US Gestapo.
The FBI’s claim that they were looking for explosives equates Russia’s diplomatic staff with terrorists. Zakharova asked if FBI agents intended to “plant compromising materials” and pretend to find them.
“Special equipment and technology were brought in…Some kind of work went on. Washingaton did not inform us about it.”
“A new tonality of relations is being imposed on Russia, ongoing practically every day – going backwards, rejecting cooperation, including at the level of contacts between our peoples.”
The closure, seizure and search incidents weren’t the first times Washington “crudely violated international law.” Such behavior, Zakharova said, seriously harms bilateral relations.
“Unfortunately, it threatens to become a new American tradition. Washington not only destabilizes Russian-American relations, but the whole global international order.”
Tough comments from Zakharova reflect the views of the Kremlin. Russia/US relations are at knife point, worse than any time during the Cold War. Prospects for improvement are nil.
NOTE from PCR: The Russian Operational Command has already concluded that Washington is preparing a surpirse nuclear first strike against Russia. What do you think this latest Washington outrage, a first in diplomatic history that goes beyond even Adolf Hitler, tells the Russians?
The American people should be extremely concerned that “their” governmen is crazy off the scale. I mean really, we are confronting total insanity in Washington.
The insane government in Washington has the entire world on the brink of nuclear armageddon.
