Diplomats in Russia?

[ballsofsteel]

Putin kick out over 700 of our diplomats out of their country. Trump thanked him for doing that. (which I thought was funny). My question is why in the hell did we need over 700 "diplomats over there? Can you imagine what that cost was to us every year? No wonder we don't have money to provide our people free health care. What a crock of shit.

[Belsnickel]

Why did we have a sizable diplomatic corps in Russia, a large country that is a part of the G20 that we have had a tumultuous relationship with for decades? I don't know, hard to say.

Side note, they will still all be on the payroll, either at desks in other diplomatic missions to keep up backchannels to Russia, or back in DC.

[StLucieBengal]

Moscow embassy also services a lot of visas for the region. This will slow down visa processing big time. Right now the embassy in Warsaw, Moscow, and Kiev handle the region.

[ballsofsteel]

(08-11-2017, 08:04 PM)StLucieBengal Wrote: Moscow embassy also services a lot of visas for the region.   This will slow down visa processing big time.   Right now the embassy in Warsaw, Moscow, and Kiev handle the region.

Wonder why they needed so many. The word "diplomat" threw me off. Why do we have to do that over there? Do the Russians have hundreds of diplomats over here doing the same thing in for this "region"? Can you imagine with all the troops and civilian personal we got scattered through out the world how many billions of dollars we would save if we just stayed home and minded our own business? (like most other countries do).  We might be able to actually lower taxes.

[Vlad]

(08-12-2017, 09:38 AM)ballsofsteel Wrote: Wonder why they needed so many. The word "diplomat" threw me off. Why do we have to do that over there? Do the Russians have hundreds of diplomats over here doing the same thing in for this "region"? Can you imagine with all the troops and civilian personal we got scattered through out the world how many billions of dollars we would save if we just stayed home and minded our own business? (like most other countries do).  We might be able to actually lower taxes.

They were there to help Russians rig the election.

[Belsnickel]

(08-12-2017, 09:38 AM)ballsofsteel Wrote: Wonder why they needed so many. The word "diplomat" threw me off. Why do we have to do that over there? Do the Russians have hundreds of diplomats over here doing the same thing in for this "region"? Can you imagine with all the troops and civilian personal we got scattered through out the world how many billions of dollars we would save if we just stayed home and minded our own business? (like most other countries do).  We might be able to actually lower taxes.

Diplomat is a term used for anyone representing a government abroad. If you are a part of the foreign service, you are a diplomat for the US. That is the broad use of the term and the way it is being used in this styling. So there are a lot of administrative people in countries that we have in place that are there to serve US citizens in those countries more than they are to engage in foreign policy at a high level. So not all of those are there to get into the business of Russia, they are there to make sure US citizens in Russia have a representative on their behalf in the country.

[StLucieBengal]

There are a lot visas processed from that region and the reason Moscow is used is because most former Soviet Union countries still have visa free travel to Russia so it's easy to get back and forth.

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(08-12-2017, 10:04 AM)Belsnickel Wrote: Diplomat is a term used for anyone representing a government abroad. If you are a part of the foreign service, you are a diplomat for the US. That is the broad use of the term and the way it is being used in this styling. So there are a lot of administrative people in countries that we have in place that are there to serve US citizens in those countries more than they are to engage in foreign policy at a high level. So not all of those are there to get into the business of Russia, they are there to make sure US citizens in Russia have a representative on their behalf in the country.

Also the US has (had?) 4 different places in Russia. The Embassy in Moscow, and then Consulates in St Petersburg, Vladivostok, and Yekaterinburg. That said, unless they're counting dependents and security among those 700+, that still seems like a rather unnecessarily large number for 4 locations.