The countries of three continents (Europe, the US and Canada, Australia) are solidly expelling Russian diplomats. Already 140 people are expelled. 60 employees of diplomatic institutions must leave the US, a third reduction of the Russian representation in NATO, individual EU countries got rid of symbolic deportations of one or two people, writes the Russian military expert, deputy editor of the EH Alexander Golts.

Maria Zakharova, a true sommelier in the field of divine dew, continues to assert that what happened is a disaster for Theresa May, British premiere. The British accusations, they say, are purely unfounded. No relation to the poisoning of the former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the British Salisbury, Moscow does not have at all. And point. And you prove it!.

All this we observed during the annexation of the Crimea, and during the secret war in the Donbass. Ms. Zakharova and her boss, who mutter something unintelligible about the unprecedented pressure that either Britain (leaving the European Union), or the insidious White House (whose host resists the pressure of the anti-Russian establishment, but is gaining in the foreign policy team people who do not feel any sentiment for Moscow). The presentation given to Kommersant prepared for a briefing at the British Embassy (which convinced many of the guilt of Russia, including US Ambassador Hartman) does not really contain any top-secret information. This is the chronology of the crime itself, the description of the poison agent and its damaging effect. Finally, and most importantly, the enumeration of all Moscow's subversive actions, beginning with the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his mouthpiece, Ms. Zakharova, who are chasing a blizzard about the Anglo-Saxon "pressure", are trying to pretend that they do not understand - there is a full-scale diplomatic catastrophe. After all, if for a moment it is admitted that Russian representatives are telling the truth that Moscow has neither a dream nor a spirit to do with crime, what has happened means that the effectiveness of the Russian Foreign Ministry is zero. If I understand correctly, the task of any diplomatic department consists not in demonstrative rudeness, but in convincing foreign states of the rightness of their country. This task was obviously not accomplished. Moscow faced a solidarity action of the collective West, which resolutely does not want to become a reserved area for special events of Russian special services.

Of course, Russian diplomats are most likely not related to the crime. But their work consisted not in not participating in an attempted murder. Their work consisted in convincing foreign states of Russia's non-involvement. And here there was a complete fiasco. The Foreign Ministry has failed its work. It turned out that the boorish-bazaar style, which was elected by representatives of the country at a special briefing, where foreign ambassadors were assembled, did not work. As well as did not impress the escapades of Mrs. Zakharova. The problem is that the characters, called Russian diplomats, tried to influence the representatives of foreign states in the style in which the leading television talk shows in the daytime affect domestic housewives and pensioners. Namely, answering questions in the style of "and you have blacks shooting," "remember NATO's aggression against Yugoslavia". I happened to talk with several ambassadors of European countries about this event. They were definitely insulted. It is no longer a fact of a chemical attack in Salisbury. The fact that they, professional high-ranking diplomats, tried to make participants a propaganda propaganda mass. A separate conversation about the statements of Ms. Zakharova that the poison agent "Novice" could be manufactured, in addition to the United States and Britain, in Sweden and the Czech Republic.

I suspect that in their slavish desire to fulfill the will of the authorities about the "offensive approach", the representatives of the foreign policy department tried not to soften the situation, but to aggravate it.

Now, when a hundred and fifty Russian diplomats pack their suitcases (it is very curious what their wives say about the Kremlin's always correct course), it is obvious that the Foreign Ministry's foreign policy itself ended in complete failure. And this is in a situation where the European Union is experiencing a serious internal crisis. But even without the presentation of "iron evidence", Western European countries decided to associate themselves with Britain and ignored Moscow's arguments. The last, sixth slide from the British presentation was played, the one where the former subversive actions of Russia were listed, connected with the violation of international laws: the annexation of the Crimea, the death of the Malaysian "Boeing", the secret war in the Donbass. The quantity has passed into quality. Against Russia, the reputation earned in the Putin era. The country finally became a global outcast.

And her diplomacy is the same outcast. It is known that the moment of international crises, when the mutual confidence of the powers tends to zero, the personal relations of the representatives of these states, some "chemistry", the trust existing between certain representatives of opposing powers can soften the situation. And here Russian diplomacy has failed completely. "Offensive", in which the last few years Russian representatives have been exercising, the trust has been destroyed completely ....