CautiousLurker 19,721 Posted August 1, 2017 Share Posted August 1, 2017 President Vladimir V. Putin announced Sunday that the American diplomatic mission in Russia must reduce its staff by 755 employees, an aggressive response to new American sanctions. “Over 1,000 employees — diplomats and technical workers — worked and continue to work today in Russia; 755 will have to stop this activity,” he said. It was a major shift in tone from the beginning of this month, when Mr. Putin first met with President Trump at the G-20 summit meeting in Hamburg, Germany. Mr. Trump had talked during his campaign of improving ties with Russia, praising Mr. Putin, and the Kremlin had anticipated that the face-to-face meeting of two presidents would be the start of a new era. The immediate assessment in Moscow was that the two leaders had set the stage for better relations. But then, in quick succession, came the expanded sanctions passed by Congress, Mr. Trump’s indication that he would sign them into law and Moscow’s forceful retaliation. Washington’s response on Sunday was muted. “This is a regrettable and uncalled-for act,” the State Department said in a statement. “We are assessing the impact of such a limitation and how we will respond to it.” Congress passed the new sanctions to punish Russia for interfering in the 2016 election, including releasing hacked emails embarrassing to Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Congress is also investigating the possibility of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, with Mr. Trump’s eldest son, Donald J. Trump Jr., recently confirming that he met with a Russian lawyer linked to the government who wanted to discuss removing an earlier round of sanctions. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/30/world/europe/russia-sanctions-us-diplomats-expelled.html Seems like Putin doesn't like karma very much - too bad, I hear she's a fan Anyway, what are your thoughts? It's a joke! When you give me that look, it's a joke! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MakisimMilque 2 Posted August 1, 2017 Share Posted August 1, 2017 He's dumb. He thinks that Russia is so cool and independent but it's not. He can only be a mess. He even signed a law that prohibits vpn. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bumblebee 2,528 Posted August 1, 2017 Share Posted August 1, 2017 Just to make the article a bit more specific: he wants the American diplomatic mission to reduce staff by exactly 755 employees so that the number of American dimplomats remaining in Russia would equal the number of Russian dimplomats in the USA. Secondly, he has ordered the American diplomatic mission to leave the diplomatic mansion they had (I'm not sure mansion is the right word, it was like a giant camp base where they used to party ) because the Obama administration arrested Russian diplomatic property in the USA in 2016. Anyway, dem thoughts. Russia can do nothing about the new sanctions introduced (it's what she deserves gif). They are really hardcore. They basically send a message to the whole world, that whoever is going to side with Russia, to invest in energy projects with Russia can get sanctioned by the US Finance authorities and can be punished financially and such company's assets in the USA may be frozen It's very hardcore, even compared to Iran sanctions, because it is the first time such measures are introduced against such a large economy (according to IMF, Russia is the 6th largest economy in the world). Also, what troubles me, is that the EU officials are not very enthusiastic about those sanctions Germany foreign ministry in particular expressed a very cold reception of the new act, and Austrian officials as well. Some of the biggest companies in Europe have voiced concerns that the new sanctions bill is just a tool to slam Russia out of European gas market, and it's alarming that the new sanctions bill may be the beginning of many troubles in EU-US relationship. As for the sanctions themselves, I don't know how to react. The newest list of restrictions seems a little bit hyproctive and I will explain why. 1) Neither US nor the EU seem to have any troubles that they are importing goods from China worth BILLIONS OF DOLLARS. But China is not a democratic state, it is a state where any other political party or force or movememnt except for the Communist Party is LEGALLY BANNED There is no way for people to come to the polls there and choose another government which will not be communistic, so there is no f**king way China is country that respects democracy in the American meaning of that word. I am not even talking about the restriction on freedom of speech and internet there And let us not forget, please, that for years China has been trading with North Korea and has been probably the only country to invest into that nuclear-thirsty regime 2)The US and some EU countries also seem very comfortable about selling weapons worth BILLIONS OF DOLLARS to Saudi Arabia, the country whose legal stand on women's rights and LGBTQ rights is f**king miles and miles away from the standards and the laws of the US and the EU Not to mention that those countries are in no way democracies either, and all the power is shared among a number of wealthy and influential royal families who pass the title of the ruler through the male line. They have been massively involved in the military conflicts along their borders as well, namely the Yemen war. So, the most logical question that arises is why does Russia enoy the special sanction attention from the US and EU while China and Saudi Arabia do not? Surely, Moscow bans LGBTQ pride events, but so do the capitals of China and Saudi Arabia. LGBTQ community members suffer greatly in Chechnya, but LGBTQ people may as well be executed or imprisoned in Saudi Arabia. Obviously Russia is involved in war with Ukraine (just like Saudi Arabia in Yemen, and China, although in a different way, supports North Korea against South Korea) and Russia has annexed a territoty (while China is trying to gain territory by creating the islands in the South China sea). But sanctions from Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Crimea annexation were introduced long ago (2014) and the nature of the new ones remains not very clear, especially when you compare Russia to China and Saudi Arabia. I do understand that US congressmen and congresswomen say that the sanctions are because Russians hacked the DNC, but what do European energy projects with Russia have to do with that? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CautiousLurker 19,721 Posted August 1, 2017 Author Share Posted August 1, 2017 54 minutes ago, bumblebee said: Just to make the article a bit more specific: he wants the American diplomatic mission to reduce staff by exactly 755 employees so that the number of American dimplomats remaining in Russia would equal the number of Russian dimplomats in the USA. Secondly, he has ordered the American diplomatic mission to leave the diplomatic mansion they had (I'm not sure mansion is the right word, it was like a giant camp base where they used to party ) because the Obama administration arrested Russian diplomatic property in the USA in 2016. Anyway, dem thoughts. Russia can do nothing about the new sanctions introduced (it's what she deserves gif). They are really hardcore. They basically send a message to the whole world, that whoever is going to side with Russia, to invest in energy projects with Russia can get sanctioned by the US Finance authorities and can be punished financially and such company's assets in the USA may be frozen It's very hardcore, even compared to Iran sanctions, because it is the first time such measures are introduced against such a large economy (according to IMF, Russia is the 6th largest economy in the world). Also, what troubles me, is that the EU officials are not very enthusiastic about those sanctions Germany foreign ministry in particular expressed a very cold reception of the new act, and Austrian officials as well. Some of the biggest companies in Europe have voiced concerns that the new sanctions bill is just a tool to slam Russia out of European gas market, and it's alarming that the new sanctions bill may be the beginning of many troubles in EU-US relationship. As for the sanctions themselves, I don't know how to react. The newest list of restrictions seems a little bit hyproctive and I will explain why. 1) Neither US nor the EU seem to have any troubles that they are importing goods from China worth BILLIONS OF DOLLARS. But China is not a democratic state, it is a state where any other political party or force or movememnt except for the Communist Party is LEGALLY BANNED There is no way for people to come to the polls there and choose another government which will not be communistic, so there is no f**king way China is country that respects democracy in the American meaning of that word. I am not even talking about the restriction on freedom of speech and internet there And let us not forget, please, that for years China has been trading with North Korea and has been probably the only country to invest into that nuclear-thirsty regime 2)The US and some EU countries also seem very comfortable about selling weapons worth BILLIONS OF DOLLARS to Saudi Arabia, the country whose legal stand on women's rights and LGBTQ rights is f**king miles and miles away from the standards and the laws of the US and the EU Not to mention that those countries are in no way democracies either, and all the power is shared among a number of wealthy and influential royal families who pass the title of the ruler through the male line. They have been massively involved in the military conflicts along their borders as well, namely the Yemen war. So, the most logical question that arises is why does Russia enoy the special sanction attention from the US and EU while China and Saudi Arabia do not? Surely, Moscow bans LGBTQ pride events, but so do the capitals of China and Saudi Arabia. LGBTQ community members suffer greatly in Chechnya, but LGBTQ people may as well be executed or imprisoned in Saudi Arabia. Obviously Russia is involved in war with Ukraine (just like Saudi Arabia in Yemen, and China, although in a different way, supports North Korea against South Korea) and Russia has annexed a territoty (while China is trying to gain territory by creating the islands in the South China sea). But sanctions from Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Crimea annexation were introduced long ago (2014) and the nature of the new ones remains not very clear, especially when you compare Russia to China and Saudi Arabia. I do understand that US congressmen and congresswomen say that the sanctions are because Russians hacked the DNC, but what do European energy projects with Russia have to do with that? Yeah, I'm aware of quite a few of those points and the only thing I can say is... mess... It irks me quite a bit that Britain - the country I live in - is among the ones selling weapons to Saudi Arabia... The only silver lining there is because the policies tories wanted to introduce were so obnoxious, the elections ended up weakening them, but that's besides the point, cuz... As hypocritical as this whole thing may seem, it's_still_what_she_deserves.gif It's a joke! When you give me that look, it's a joke! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bumblebee 2,528 Posted August 1, 2017 Share Posted August 1, 2017 2 minutes ago, CautiousLurker said: Yeah, I'm aware of quite a few of those points and the only thing I can say is... mess... It irks me quite a bit that Britain - the country I live in - is among the ones selling weapons to Saudi Arabia... The only silver lining there is because the policies tories wanted to introduce were so obnoxious, the elections ended up weakening them, but that's besides the point, cuz... As hypocritical as this whole thing may seem, it's_still_what_she_deserves.gif Yep, but what irks me is the suspicion that the whole WEST vs PUTIN conflict screames for some elitist reason. The western countries have overlooked the 2008 Russian war with Georgia which went in nearly the same scenario and ended in Russia proclaiming two of Georgia's regions to be independent states and giving their inhabitants Russian passports but no sanctions were introduced and French president even went to Moscow to work out the peace agreement between Russia and Georgia This time in Ukraine the things that happened didn't differ much from Georgia war of 2008. Russia didn't officially annex those two Georgian regions, but it has its troops there and people of those two Georgian regions have Russian passports which is the same as annexation And before that there was an open war against Gerogia. In Ukraine Russia annexed Crimea and funds the war in the Eastern Ukraine, but she faces much more strict reaction from the western countries, and I can't help but think that it's because of their personal disagreements with Putin rather than because of his authoritarian style, sadly Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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