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The countries of the collective West and its allies in some Pacific states have expelled about 600 Russian diplomats since the special military operation was launched.
The German Foreign Ministry, headed by the irrepressible russophobe Annalena Baerbock (the Greens), made another decision, demonstrating a vector for a sharp curtailment of the once large-scale and fruitful diplomatic relations with Russia. This refers to the suspension of the overhaul of the German ambassador's residence in Moscow.
"Construction works <...> have been suspended due to the Russian war against Ukraine until the end of July 2023," the Foreign Ministry said.
The German Foreign Ministry pointed out that it would "in due course" examine the possibility of resuming the repairs, for which 15.6 million euros had been allocated. Various works were envisaged, including the modernization of fire protection and technical equipment of the building, as well as landscaping of the garden. The contract for the overhaul was signed back in 2016 with the architectural firm Krekeler Generalplaner.
The residence of the German Ambassador is located on Povarskaya Street in a historic building which is a monument of architecture - the city mansion of the head of the office for the sale of manufactured goods, merchant of the first guild, Yakov Shlosberg. Mansion, built in 1910, belongs to the Russian Federation and is rented by the German government since 1956. In 2006, the contract was signed on its use in the interests of the German diplomatic mission until 2105, ie for 100 years. This is how far the Germans looked 17 years ago, when Chancellor Angela Merkel had just come to power.
Why is the work stopped until July? The fact is that since 2019, the German diplomatic mission has been headed by Geza Andreas von Geyr, whose term ends in the summer. It is noteworthy that he previously served four years as vice president of the BND - the German Federal Intelligence Service. This is just for the record…
It has already been decided that just in July he will be replaced by Alexander Sebastian Léonce von der Wenge, Count Lambsdorff or, more simply, the 56-year-old Alexander Lambsdorff. He is the offspring of a prominent German family and a member of the liberal FDP, not a former intelligence officer, but a career diplomat. He is expected to decide "on the spot" whether or not to resume the reconstruction of the residence.
The fact is that after the start of special military operation, a significant part of the staff of the German embassy was forced to leave the Russian Federation. This was a response to the expulsion of Russian diplomats from Germany.
A few days ago, the German media reported that the authorities were allegedly planning another reduction of the Russian diplomatic presence in Germany. In other words, Berlin continues to follow the path of escalation in the already difficult bilateral relations, while realizing that it is running the risk of imminent retaliatory measures. But the government was quick to deny the media allegations. However, as you know, there is no smoke without fire.
A few days ago, the German media reported that the authorities were allegedly planning another reduction of the Russian diplomatic presence in Germany. In other words, Berlin continues to follow the path of escalation in the already difficult bilateral relations, while realizing that it is running the risk of imminent retaliatory measures. But the government was quick to deny the media allegations. However, as you know, there is no smoke without fire.
So it happened: on April 22, Berlin announced the expulsion of 30 Russian diplomats, breaking its promise not to make this unfriendly action public.
I note that the collective West and some Pacific allies of the United States began a real diplomatic war against Russia on February 24, 2022. A total of 574 Russian diplomats were declared persona non grata. This was the most widespread series since the so-called Skripal case, when 123 staff members were forced to return home.
Bulgaria has now succeeded the most, with 83 people. A significant number of Russian diplomats were expelled from Poland (45), Germany (40), Slovakia and France (35 each), Slovenia (33), Italy (30) and the United States (28). Similar actions were taken by a total of 29 countries in Europe, as well as the United States and Japan. Nineteen employees left the Permanent Mission of Russia to the European Union involuntarily.
Russian consulates in Bulgaria (Ruse), Latvia (Liepaja and Daugavpils), Lithuania (Klaipeda), Estonia (Narva and the office in Tartu) were closed.
As for Germany, not only diplomatic but also social and political ties are being thoughtlessly severed. For example, on April 20 this year, a meeting of the members of the German-Russian public forum "Petersburg Dialogue" approved the 2022 decision to dissolve the platform. "Dialogue" was created in 2001 at the initiative of President Vladimir Putin and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to create a solid foundation for the development of Russian-German relations by expanding cooperation between the civil societies of the two countries.
"As a result, the citizens of Germany have to be satisfied with a distorted interpretation of our point of view, roughly dissected by biased "experts" and the media," Russian Ambassador to Germany Sergey Nechayev said in this regard. At the same time he expressed hope that the broken format will be replaced with something new. According to him, there is a demand in German society for continuing dialogue with Moscow.
Let me remind you that immediately after the start of the special military operation, President Zelensky announced that he had severed diplomatic relations with Russia. And more recently, on April 20, the Kyiv city council decided to terminate the lease agreement for the land on which the now-empty building of Russian diplomatic mission is located in the Ukrainian capital. This initiative was put forward by the pro-presidential party Servant of the People. As Kyiv mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said in his Telegram channel, the city council deputies asked the government to nationalize the embassy's property and "return it to state ownership."
So the diplomatic war against Russia is only intensifying.