Hysterics Around The Flag

I just cannot help saying several words about the hysteria, or to be more exact – about the hysterics in Russian media [within real anti-American hysteria] in conjunction with taking Russian national flags off the Russian diplomatic representations buildings in the USA, e.g. Consulate General of the Russian Federation in San Francisco. What is it that so outraged, if not infuriated, for example, Mrs. Zakharova, Head of Press and Information Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, as well as the cream of our whole political beau-mond? Who if not Zakharova should well know that in accordance with international agreements, state symbols, e.g. a national flag, may be displayed on the building with ACTING diplomatic mission/representation. Do you hear it – acting! Now let us get back in time for couple of months: American authorities made the decision to close (even if temporarily) Russian representations in the USA – General Consulate in San Francisco and Trade Representation in New York. Russian authorities were notified about that decision in advance – yes, at a very short notice (and there must have been certain reasons for that), yes, it was an unfriendly decision (as the respected by me Minister Lavrov put it), but it was done in exact accord with international agreements. Russian representatives, for some mysterious reasons (like “just for spite!”) decided to leave the Russian national flag on the top of the building, although they knew quite well that since the status of the diplomatic representation office was put on hold/suspended or cancelled, no national flag should be out there. The same applies to the status of the building itself: as soon as the diplomatic status of the representation is cancelled, the building loses its status of a foreign territory. That is why American representatives took the Russian national flag off the building, and (as was justly stated by Americans) it was done with due respect to the symbol of the Russian state power.
It is really strange that Russian media asked the most stupid, in my mind, questions, like “why was it done at night?” and “how can a flag be taken off without respect?”. Here is my answer (in short, I could certainly elaborate on it) to the most “gifted” of them: it was done at night time in order not to step on the feelings of Russians living in San Francisco; as for taking off a flag without due respect, it means tearing it down carelessly, with possible damage. The flag was carefully taken off, folded and left in the building, which remains the property of Russia. Couple of special comments regarding the property: NOBODY IMPINGED OR IMPINGES on Russian property in the USA. The only point is that there will be no (for a time being at least) diplomatic representation in that property. Russia has a full right to use that property for other purposes – naturally, in accordance with US laws and necessary clearances with local/city authorities (e.g. rent space, open a museum of Soviet history, etc. etc. , the reader can fantasize at this point; the important thing is that the type of activity would comply with local laws).
Now let us talk about the situation which had taken place BEFORE the cancellation of the status of Russian diplomatic representation came into effect, i.e. between notification of the Russian party about the forthcoming cancellation and the actual date of the cancellation. Personnel of the Russian representation tried to burn a huge amount of documents – as a side note, naturally, it is much cheaper (in fact, it costs nothing!) to burn documents inside the building, rather than transport giant cargo to a special site and have it burnt there for a fee, or - which would have been even more expensive but still more correct – transport all documents as diplomatic baggage to Russia, and then at home, without haste, to decide which documents to burn or not. But OK, the decision was to save money (what a surprise!) Anyway, when clouds of dark smoke started coming out of the building, American fire rescue people and (since there were “best friends” of the USA in the building) representatives of special services rushed to the site.
Just in case Mrs. Zakharova does not know it (although something is telling me she knows it quite well): according to the same agreements which regulate activities of diplomatic representations, in case of emergency situation (incl. fire hazard) special services of the “pays de sejour” have the right to enter the site of the representation with a view to eliminate the emergency situation in question, of which the foreign representations shall be notified in advance. Such a notification-telephone call was made, and it was recorded.
Now just imagine that clouds of black smoke emerge from the US Embassy in Moscow… Do you think that Russian fire men and FSB representatives would reel in the Garden Ring singing “Burn, burn, burn and glow…”?
Now about the American decision itself. Is it unfriendly towards Russia? Absolutely. Did it come out of nowhere, with no reason at all? In Americans’ opinion, Russia meddled in American electoral process, in the democratic mechanism of the elections. 17 (don’t remember the exact number) American government agencies came to this conclusion. By the by, one should not mix up “meddled in” and “this meddling allowed Trump to win”; by no means, it is not that meddling that ensured his victory; but it does not change at all the context of Russian-American relations. When Putin was asked “do all these agencies lie?” he replied “they were all misled”. Vladimir Vladimirovich knows better than anybody that only people not just with excellent education but the most talented, land jobs with such organizations as CIA, ANS, FBI etc. (as well as KGB of the USSR; the bar is lower now, I guess, but nevertheless…). But even if we assume that all of them – ALL – were misled, it is this particular case when a country can base its decision on the principle “it is better to OVERinsure than UNDER…”), and on our part, to demand any evidence is naïve, at the very least. How can one not understand such elementary things – Russia is not in the court of law, not on the bench! They do not have to present any evidence, in order to take unfriendly actions against us! The fact is they came to this conclusion, period – and as the result, they decided to close the representation offices. It is their right. And the right of Russia – to respond, symmetrically or asymmetrically, or not to respond at all but rather, to exemplarily penalize those who did their job poorly…
And finally, about reply measures. Yes, of course it is possible to close US Consulates in St. Petersburg, Vladivostok, it is possible to come up with a lot of other measures. It is only necessary to keep in mind several principal things:

• it is Russia which holds part of its currency reserves in US dollars, not the US – in Russian Rubles;
• the number of Russians applying for US visas, many times exceeds the number of Americans applying for Russian visas;
• it is children of Russian [political and economic] elite study in the USA, and not children of American congressmen and captains of industry – in Russian universities;
• it is representatives of Russian elite (politicians, businessmen, stars of sports and show business) own property in the USA and keep their savings in dollars, not vice versa.
  You know, I could go on and on with this list. But here is what I would like to say in the end: one should be consistent (and in this context consistency means “integrity”): I respect people with stance/position (even if I disagree with it). When someone tells me “I do not want to go to the USA even for a week, because America is the enemy”, I do not agree with it but I respect the position. But when I see some… on TV screen, slandering and denigrating America, and that someone has property there, and his children study in the US, and his whole outfit up to the last thread is from Bloomingdale’s, then such a person excites nothing but disgust in me.
  So, gentlemen, you should make your choice:
  either “back in USSR” with monopoly for foreign trade, NON-convertible currency with all implications (one of which was a real independence from the USA/West), and in this case you can enjoy reply measures,
  or “dollar rules”, and in this case it is a big question who suffers more from these reply measures.
  Thanks for reading to the end!