Leonid Slutsky: “A group of American senators from both parties called on US President Joe Biden to take measures to increase the number of employees of the United States Embassy in Moscow, and if the Russian Federation refuses to cooperate, to expel 300 Russian diplomats from the country.
Populism and incompetence: Senate representatives clearly counted on a loud PR stunt, but at the same time they did not understand the problem well. It was Washington that unleashed a confrontation with Russia in the diplomatic sphere at the end of 2016, targeting employees of Russian diplomatic missions and embassy facilities. We all remember the unjustified expulsion of diplomats in a matter of days, the seizure of diplomatic property and other aggressive and illegal measures of the American side. All Moscow’s actions were reciprocal and, I emphasize, balanced and symmetrical.
But American senators do not want to delve into these subtleties, preferring to scribble angry messages to their president and make them public. Moreover, apparently, they take into account the mission of the Russian Federation to the UN, which is absolutely illiterate!
The list of signers of the letter to Biden is not surprising. These names are well known. Messrs Rubio and Menendez are the authors of a number of bills and resolutions, one way or another directed against Russia. The question is: do they realize that the implementation of their next “Russophobic masterpiece” is fraught with the forced closure of diplomatic institutions and a decrease in the actual level of diplomatic relations to a critically low level?”