Russia is harassing U.S. diplomats all over Europe -Article from June but relevant

[octoberlib]

By Josh Rogin June 27


Russian intelligence and security services have been waging a campaign of harassment and intimidation against U.S. diplomats, embassy staff and their families in Moscow and several other European capitals that has rattled ambassadors and prompted Secretary of State John F. Kerry to ask Vladimir Putin to put a stop to it.

At a recent meeting of U.S. ambassadors from Russia and Europe in Washington, U.S. ambassadors to several European countries complained that Russian intelligence officials were constantly perpetrating acts of harassment against their diplomatic staff that ranged from the weird to the downright scary. Some of the intimidation has been routine: following diplomats or their family members, showing up at their social events uninvited or paying reporters to write negative stories about them.

But many of the recent acts of intimidation by Russian security services have crossed the line into apparent criminality. In a series of secret memos sent back to Washington, described to me by several current and former U.S. officials who have written or read them, diplomats reported that Russian intruders had broken into their homes late at night, only to rearrange the furniture or turn on all the lights and televisions, and then leave. One diplomat reported that an intruder had defecated on his living room carpet.

In Moscow, where the harassment is most pervasive, diplomats reported slashed tires and regular harassment by traffic police. Former ambassador Michael McFaul was hounded by government-paid protesters, and intelligence personnel followed his children to school. The harassment is not new; in the first term of the Obama administration, Russian intelligence personnel broke into the house of the U.S. defense attache in Moscow and killed his dog, according to multiple former officials who read the intelligence reports.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/russia-is-harassing-us-diplomats-all-over-europe/2016/06/26/968d1a5a-3bdf-11e6-84e8-1580c7db5275_story.html?utm_term=.0bac4ee9c555

[Rex]

1. Well it is a closed government, autocratic and somewhat despotic.

Hopefully Trump and his merry band of idiots won't try to emulate that shit here in America.

[Raster]

2. Once a fucking KGB thug, ALWAYS a fucking KGB thug.

[LisaM]

3. So our response was to let it continue until after the election

and let them help get Putin's puppet elected.

[delisen]

4. This is information that we needed to know June, 2016 or earlier !

If this information had been provided to us a meaningful way early on we would have been able to react to news about Trump's Russian connections with the alarm it needed.

It is similar to the FBI initially just having had a lower level agent notify a lower level DNC person that they were being hacked, instead of the head of the FBI in his official capacity informing the head of the DNC.

In order to have a functioning democracy the people need to be informed.

That small country that doesn't produce anything that other countries want, seems to be having some success in destabilizing democracies

The way to stop a campaign of harassment and intimidation is to tell us, not just have Kerry ask Putin to stop it.

Sometimes things just don't add up.