Russia to expel 60 U.S. diplomats, close St. Petersburg consulate

By Matthew Bodner
March 29, 2018

MOSCOW — Russia will close the American consulate in St. Petersburg and kick out 60 U.S. diplomats in response to Monday’s coordinated expulsion of Russian diplomats from the United States and a number of European countries, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday. Lavrov said that U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman has been asked to appear at the Foreign Ministry — “where my deputy minister Sergei Ryabkov will lay out for him the content of these retaliatory measures against the United States,” he said.

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Rogue Valley said:

Russia to expel 60 U.S. diplomats, close St. Petersburg consulate


Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov



The Kremlin used a Twitter poll to ask Russians which US consulate to close. They chose St. Petersburg.

Time for the US to order the closure of the Russian consulate in Houston. Then the New York consulate if Moscow again retaliates.

Time to get rid of all the Russian SVR/FSB/GRU spies wandering freely around the US mapping our internet, energy, and military nodes.

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Rogue Valley said:

Russia to expel 60 U.S. diplomats, close St. Petersburg consulate


Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov

The Kremlin used a Twitter poll to ask Russians which US consulate to close. They chose St. Petersburg.

Time for the US to order the closure of the Russian consulate in Houston. Then the New York consulate if Moscow again retaliates.

Time to get rid of all the Russian SVR/FSB/GRU spies wandering freely around the US mapping our internet, energy, and military nodes.

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jnug said:

None of this will work. This is what happens when you allow Teresa May to make decisions. What good is a tit for tat tossing of diplomates/spies. If we close more consulates, they will respond in kind. Neither May nor Trump did what should have been done. May because there is too much Russian money floating around London and Trump because....well I will just leave it there.

They needed to freeze the Oligarchs money in UK and here. Hit them in their wallets. But Oh no..lets keep exchanging people and make believe we are doing something.

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Rogue Valley said:

Russia to expel 60 U.S. diplomats, close St. Petersburg consulate


Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov



The Kremlin used a Twitter poll to ask Russians which US consulate to close. They chose St. Petersburg.

Time for the US to order the closure of the Russian consulate in Houston. Then the New York consulate if Moscow again retaliates.

Time to get rid of all the Russian SVR/FSB/GRU spies wandering freely around the US mapping our internet, energy, and military nodes.

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Thoreau72 said:

Hell Yeah!! Let's make it so the only way the 2 governments can communicate is through nuclear weapons.

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Skeptic Bob said:

I wouldn’t worry too much about that. These are consulate closures, not embassy closures. Not much diplomacy is done through consulates. What Russia closing US consulates does is make it inconvenient for American citizens visiting or working in Russia to get assistance if needed.

And then, of course, if a country is doing intelligence out of a given consulate then closing it is an inconvenience for that country’s intelligence community.

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3/30/18

All of the 60 Russians expelled by the United States this week were undeclared “spies” pretending to be diplomats, a senior administration official told reporters on Thursday, saying the Russians were unwelcome -- “persona non grata.” “These are not diplomats that we expelled. These were intelligence officers that were engaging in activities that were not commensurate with their diplomatic roles and functions at an embassy,” the official said. “And they’re operating under diplomatic cover.” The senior administration official added, “Having these undeclared Russian intelligence officers inside our country is a threat to our national security interest and is one of the points that we’re going to make to our partners around the world.”

Asked if the U.S. was satisfied with the response from Europe, the official called the collective action “an unprecedented show of transatlantic unity” and “an amazing response to a breach of the postwar order.” The official said it could be a turning point in how the U.S. and its allies view Russia's activities in the West. “And so a joint action by a series of countries... sends a stronger message of our unity against the Russians’ abhorrent behavior.”

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Rogue Valley said:

All 60 Russians kicked out of US are 'undeclared spies' pretending to be diplomats, US official says



Precisely my point. The Russian intelligence operatives in Seattle were no doubt monitoring US sub movements and trying to infiltrate nearby high-tech industries such as Boeing and Microsoft.

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

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jnug said:

I would not be surprised if the Russians made the tit for tat spy for spy. The Russians and before them the Soviets were and are the best human resources Intelligence and counter-intelligence agencies in the world...So I seriously doubt they did not have a fairly good idea which Americans they kicked out were engaged in the same sorts of activities.

This needed to focus on Russian Financial Assets to have any real value. This is still a bunch of Russian malfeasance and virtually nothing in response. May and Trump for different reasons put on a show instead of doing what had to be done. The Russians have played this same game forever. We are just not used to seeing it as much as we used to during the REAL cold war.

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