Russia concurs with Julian Assange’s
statement on the matter.
While many
pundits rush to pat themselves on the back for being the first to postulate
that the US violations of international law which are implicit in the FBI’s searches of Russian diplomatic
properties in the US sets a worrying precedent for Julian
Assange, this is not an original thesis. Far from it, it was actually theorised
by Julian Assange himself.
On the 14th of July, 2017, Julian Assange laid out the legal
case for why Barack Obama’s confiscation of Russian diplomatic properties in
the US dating from December of 2016, was illegal and cited the appropriate
provisions of international law, including and especially the Vienna
Conventions.
The full
set of Twitter based statement from Assange as well as my analysis at the time
can be viewed here.
The recent actions by the Trump administration violate the
Vienna Conventions even further as the FBI continues to conduct visible
searches of the properties which is a further violation of Article 22 of the
1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
If the US can break into and search Russian diplomatic property
under the guise of largely meaningless disputes, could the US or its proxy
authorities in the UK do the same to the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in which
Julian Assange is currently enjoying asylum from the Ecuadorian authorities?
Now that such a dangerous precedent has been repeatedly set by the United
States, the answer is sadly, yes.
If the US could act so brazenly with the diplomatic facilities
of a nuclear superpower, one could only imagine what the US and its proxies
could do in respect of the smaller embassy of a much poorer and less powerful
nation, in this case Ecuador.
The
Russian Foreign Ministry has made it clear that it shares Assange’s views on the
illegality of US actions.
“On
September 2, the US authorities seized the buildings of the Russian Consulate
General in San Francisco and the Trade Mission in Washington, which are in
Russian property and enjoy diplomatic immunity. Russian representatives
are also denied access to the leased premises of the branch of the trade
mission in New York.
This outrageous
step follows the actual expropriation in December of last year of Russian-owned
suburban diplomatic complexes near Washington and New York. In the
occupied buildings, the US special services are now hosted with the support of
the armed police.
We regard
the incident as a frankly hostile act, a gross violation by Washington of
international law, including the Vienna Conventions on diplomatic and consular
relations, the bilateral Consular Convention.
We call on
the American authorities to come to their senses and immediately return Russian
diplomatic facilities. Otherwise, the entire blame for the continuing
degradation of relations between our countries, on which the state of global
stability and international security largely depends, will lie on the US”.
Assange has once again Tweeted Article 22 of the 1961 Vienna
Convention along with an accurate statement on the illegality of US actions
against the Russian diplomatic properties in the US.
If Russia’s missions are standard diplomatic properties then they are
inviolable under the VDR signed by the U.S. https://t.co/ebMv0Z1DU3 pic.twitter.com/jQw7Z4TCni
For now Assange is safe, but for how long? A very dangerous
precedent has been set by the most aggressive nation on earth, which also
happens to be the nation whose leading officials have repeatedly called for
Assange’s imprisonment and even execution.