St. Petersburg as a choice in closing any US consulate, is a strategic issue.

I am really curious as to the opinion Ambassador Huntsman has regarding many topics concerning Russia.

March 29, 2018
By Matthew Bodner

Moscow - Russia will close the American consulate in St. Petersburg (click here) and kick out 60 U.S. diplomats in response to Monday’s coordinated expulsion of Russian diplomats from the United States and a number of other countries, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday.

The move continues an ongoing escalation of tit-for-tat between Moscow and the West that began in early March with the alleged poisoning of a former Russian double agent on British soil with a Soviet-designed nerve agent.

U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman was summoned to the Foreign Ministry Thursday night where Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov informed him of Russia’s response.

According to a Foreign Ministry statement, 58 American diplomats from the Moscow embassy and two from the consulate in Yekaterinburg have been declared persona non grata. The United States expelled 60 Russians on Monday....

St. Petersburg is very near Europe. It is also exposure for any strategic position. By closing St. Petersburg consulate, Russia is ready to create a front should a war break out without worrying about diplomats or spies.

Those are train routes from St. Petersburg to Moscow. Moscow is not that far from Europe either.

Russia has ports on those waterways. Should there be a war they would fall vulnerable to attack by The West.

I doubt the Polish airport is still considered to be a Russian territory. But, the northern border of Russia is vast and hardest to defend. See, Russia has a innate vulnerability and that is it's size compared to it's military. It is one of the reasons Russia has a nuclear arsenal. It is difficult for Russia to deploy forces throughout it's mainland and still protect Moscow. It much rather fight battles at sea where missiles are unable to reach into it's interior. It is why Russia enjoys reminding the USA it has an ally in Cuba when it's spy ships make port there.

It used to be that Russia had to worry about ice breakers in order to reach it's northern ports, but, what makes the Russian venture into the north passage across the Arctic Ocean so interesting is the anxious need to believe it has far easier access to those northern ports.

Russia has vulnerabilities to exploit and I would not think the USA's first focus would be NATO so much as the vulnerable areas of Russia to express the danger it is entering if it truly desires war. If I were a US General I would not hesitate to kick Putin in the ass, so to speak, to let him know there is more to war than nuclear brinkmanship. NATO might even sleep through what I would consider the real diplomatic relations of the USA military.