Expulsions of Russian diplomats: the Russian press denounced a new “cold War”

AFP

AFP

Tuesday, 27 march 2018 05:14

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Tuesday, 27 march 2018 05:14

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MOSCOW | The Russian press estimated Tuesday that the expulsions contact information of Russian diplomats by a score of countries after the poisoning of a former Russian agent plunged relations between Moscow and the west into a new “cold War period”.

It is a “flashmob russophobe”, as the daily Izvestia, while the newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta reminds that “there never had been evictions details”.

“The relationship between Russia and the West entered a period of cold War to full-fledged” sums up the analyst Fyodor Loukianov in the pages of the newspaper vedomosti daily, stating that the evictions “have been particularly destructive for Russian-american relations”.

“This is not the end of the climbing, it is clear that it will worsen, we expect that measures even more severe than before, economic sanctions against Russia,” says-t it.

According to the daily Kommersant, these “measures the severity without precedent (…) are not a new aggravation of relations between Russia and the west”.

For the independent radio Ekho Moskvy, “the whole policy of Russia focuses its energy in the self-destruction since 2014” the year of the annexation of the peninsula, the Ukrainian of the Crimea by Moscow, which was followed by a series of western sanctions.

“The more the relationship between Russia and the West is bad, better is the president” Vladimir Putin, ensures Ekho Moskvy. “If you’re in a citadel under siege, you need to constantly provoke the attacks ( … ), otherwise your legitimacy is lost.”

Twenty-three countries, including 16 members of the european Union, have decided to expel at least 116 Russian diplomats, in the context of retaliation for the western camp after the poisoning of ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal on british soil on march 4, carried out according to London via Moscow.

Washington leads by far the movement with the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats considered to be “intelligence agents” (48) in various missions in the United States, and 12 at the Russian mission to the UN) and the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle, on the West coast.

Moscow immediately denounced as a “gesture provocative” and promised to retaliate in turn. “Russia has never had and has nothing to do with this matter”, reiterated the Kremlin.