ICYMI: Russian Ambassador Learns His Staff Is Banned from USA in the Middle of a Briefing
If you’re sick of getting annoying calls about your car warranty, just be grateful that you’re not this guy.
Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations found out that 12 of the personnel assigned to his mission were being expelled from the U.S. — during a news conference with journalists.
Vasily Nebenzia received a phone call from an unclear source delivering the bad news just over three minutes into the Monday briefing.
“I just received information that the U.S. authorities have undertaken another hostile action against the Russian mission to the United Nations,” Nebenzia said after he got off the phone.
“They are announcing 12 people from the personnel of the Russian mission persona non grata and demanding that they will leave by the seventh of March,” the ambassador explained. The UN complex is located in New York City.
Nebenzia called the move “another demonstration of gross disrespect.”
In the briefing, Nebenzia sought to justify Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The ambassador refused to describe the conflict as an invasion or a war, instead repeating Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claim that it is merely a “special military operation.”
Nebenzia said the objective of the invasion included the “demilitarization and denazification” of Ukraine.
The U.S. government would later confirm that 12 members of Russia’s mission to the UN were being expelled from the country.
“The United States has informed the Russian Permanent Mission to the United Nations that we are beginning the process of expelling 12 intelligence operatives from the Russian Mission who have abused their privileges of residency in the United States by engaging in espionage activities that are adverse to our national security,” said a spokeswoman for the US Mission to the United Nations, according to CBS News.
141 nations voted to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in a resolution at the UN.
Putin found Russia as a member of the G8 and will leave her with four pariah dictators as the only allies.
The results of his foreign policy in one photo. pic.twitter.com/gIKn6Nw8yb
— Vladimir Kara-Murza (@vkaramurza) March 3, 2022
The expulsion of a few UN diplomats is a drop in the bucket of broader U.S. and Western sanctions against Russia implemented since the invasion last week.
You might call them “special financial operations.”
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