Ever wish your job involved traveling to new places, learning as much as you can about the people there and conveying the message of the United States while you’re at it? A career as a foreign service officer might be right up your alley.
In what could be a bad sign of things to come as Dmitry Medvedev settles in as President, the State Department revealed yesterday that Russia has expelled two Americans from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, though they offered no public explanation as to why.
From the International Herald Tribune: “No one at the State Department would speculate about the reasons for the expulsions, although the United States has reportedly expelled a handful of Russians in recent years in little-noted diplomatic dust-ups.”
The United States’ plans to build a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic have come under fire from former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, who doesn’t buy Washington’s justification that its intent is only to counter threats from the likes of Iran.
From the AFP story: “The United States cannot tolerate anyone acting independently,” he told the Daily Telegraph in an interview conducted in Paris. “Every US president has to have a war.”
There was no mention of Gorbachev’s thoughts on the perceived anti-democratic measures Putin, et al have taken.
Moscow is preparing to inaugurate incoming president Dmitry Medvedev in a ceremony at Red Square Wednesday.
[Medvedev is the subject of a great photo essay on the Discovery Institute's Real Russia Project blog. Take a look - really nice shots.]
This Moscow Times story has a rundown on what the inaugaration ceremony and Victory Day parade (scheduled for Friday) will consist of.
Interesting tidbits:
En route to London last week for international meetings re: Kosovo and the Middle East, Condoleezza Rice addressed Russia’s recent announcement that it will send additional peacekeeping troops to Georgia. Amid already tense relations between the two countries over Abkhazia and South Ossetia’s desired independence (from Georgia), Rice said the deployments don’t seem to violate specific peacekeeping agreements, but are “not militarily necessary.”
Essentially, as Russia does its best to stand in the way of most everything Georgia wishes to accomplish, the West is asking Russia to respect Georgia’s sovereignty.
Said Rice (in a Voice of America story):
“What the Russians are doing is part of a peacekeeping mission that they’re involved in. But given the tensions between Russia and Georgia, it would certainly be helpful if Russia and Georgia maintained direct contact. They have from time to time. This is not a time to excite the environment, and so we were very concerned about the movement of those forces. I’ve talked to both Georgians and Russians to say: let’s not let any of this get out of hand.”
In retaliation for sanctions the U.S. (and Europe) have imposed on Belarus since the controversial 2006 election of President Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus has expelled 10 American diplomats. The U.S. ambassador was sent packing in March.
U.S. officials say they won’t lift sanctions until Belarus releases imprisoned opposition leaders, but judging from today’s Washington Post story, odds are against it. Lukashenko said yesterday he has no intention of releasing Alexander Kozulin, the well-known leader sentenced to more than five years for organizing demonstrations following the ‘06 election. Of Kozulin, Lukashenko said:
“They have picked some putrid oppositionist who got 1.5 percent in the election and picture him as a political prisoner. He wants the whole world to rise to his release and the government to collapse.”
The State Department called the expulsion “unjustified and unwarranted,” but is it at all realistic, let alone fair, to expect a country we’re actively penalizing not to retaliate in some way, shape or form?