Russia Deports One German and Several Polish Diplomats

[uhnope]

Source: New York Times

MOSCOW — Russia has deported several Polish and one German diplomat in recent days, the latest in a series of tit-for-tat expulsions that have come along with mounting tensions between Russia and European governments over the crisis in Ukraine.

The Russian Foreign Ministry announced on Monday that “a number of Polish diplomats” were being sent home in retaliation for the “unfriendly and unfounded” expulsion of Russian diplomats from Poland this month.

Separately, the German government said on Monday that one of its diplomats had been asked to leave Russia in what it called a “retaliatory measure,” confirming a report in Der Spiegel over the weekend.

Relations between Russia and the West are at their worst since the Cold War, despite the tentative cease-fire between the Ukrainian government and the pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine’s southeast. Fighting has continued to simmer there, and each side has accused the other of repeatedly violating the agreement.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/18/world/europe/russia-deports-german-polish-diplomats-retaliation.html?_r=0

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Following his loss of face at the G20 summit in Australia (where world leaders disrespected him to his face), Putin will be throwing tantrums like this a lot more, I think. Look for a crackdown on democratic forces in Russia and more aggressive warmaking/invasion in Ukraine.

[Blue_Tires]

1. And he's still desperate for a way to dodge blame for MH17...

[stevenleser]

3. Yep, we're up to at least five alternate ridiculous theories floated by Moscow and their sycophants

on the web.

[Blue_Tires]

4. My favorites from memory:

1. The wreckage is really MH370, dropped from the sky (with corpses) by the USA (variation -- The Russian rebels shot down a real military plane, but the Ukrainians got to the site first and made it look like a commercial site)

2. The plane was MH370 flown as a "ghost flight" and then destroyed like that scenario from that "Sherlock" episode

3. The Ukrainians were trying to shoot down Putin's presidential jet and missed

4. Ukrainian ATC set the plane up by having it fly low and slow over the AA location

5. An American fighter jet shot down the plane

6. Malaysian Airlines set this whole thing up for sympathy/deflect attention away from MH370

[uhnope]

6. CT lunacy/apologia shouldn't surprise me, but wow. thx for the list

I didn't the lunacy went so far.

[stevenleser]

2. K&R nt

[Tarheel_Dem]

5. He scurried the hell outta there, just like any other cockroach.