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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forumstrump has zero reaction to putin / russia kicking out 755 diplomats....maybe he doesn't know or care
Putin slashing number of US diplomatic staff in Russia by 755 people
Putin said Sunday that the cut will make the size of the U.S. diplomatic mission in his country equal to that of Russia's diplomatic corps in the U.S.
"The personnel of the U.S. diplomatic missions in Russia will be cut by 755 people and will now equal the number of the Russian diplomatic personnel in the United States, 455 people on each side," Putin said in an interview on the Rossiya 1 network.
"Because over a thousand employees, diplomats and technical personnel have been working and are still working in Russia, and 755 of them will have to cease their work in the Russian Federation. Its considerable," Putin said.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/putin-slashing-number-us-diplomats-russia-755-people/story?id=48937036
babylonsister
(170,931 posts)were there so many Americans over there? Head-scratching... And I have read Putin greatly exaggerated that number, but still...
spanone
(135,588 posts)....
However, it wasnt the Russians tit-for-tat move that has gotten many Americans surprised. Rather, it was the mind-boggling huge number of diplomats under the U.S. government payroll. Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia, said he was surprised by the target number When I was U.S. ambassador, we didnt have that many Americans in Russia.
Of course, not all of 1,210 employees presently working at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow were Americans. In 2013 alone, according to a State Department Inspector Generals report, the Moscow embassy and consulates in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok employed 1,279 staff included 867 locally employed staff and 333 U.S. direct-hire staff, from 35 U.S. government agencies.
Essentially, that breakdown from 2013 data suggested the actual number of Americans forced to leave Russia would be far less than 755. Still, the fact remains that the U.S. embassy and consulates employ a bloated 1,210 staffs. While McFaul said Russians should expect to wait weeks if not months to get visas to enter the U.S. with the Kremlins retaliation, theres one thing he didnt disclose.
Most of the staff employed, similar to Russia Embassy in the U.S., were working for the Intelligence Community NSA, CIA and whatnot. Obviously, the U.S. employs more intelligence officers or spies in Russia than the Kremlins spy agencies Foreign Intelligence Service (FIS) and GRU (Glavnoye Razvedyvatelnoye Upravleniye or simply Main Intelligence Agency) do.
http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/russias-retaliatory-move-single-largest-diplomatic-staff-expulsion-ever/ri20527
babylonsister
(170,931 posts)DK504
(3,847 posts)He only cares about the oil fields in Russia.