(RightWing.org) – On February 24, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his military forces over the border into Ukraine in what he says was an effort to “de-Nazify” the country. Many in the West, including President Joe Biden, Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT), and former President Donald Trump, believe it was more likely an attempt to relive his glory days as a KGB agent in the Soviet Union.
Don’t Go/Get Out
On February 13, the State Department issued a new warning to American citizens who may currently be in Russia or, for some reason, planning to travel there. Their advice was very starkly put, saying, “U.S. citizens residing or traveling in Russia should depart immediately.”
The diplomatic staff within the country cited the Kremlin’s restrictions on travel and advised that their ability to provide services “is severely limited.” This comes as Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said he believes that Putin will launch a major offensive to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the initial invasion and the February 23 Russian Defender of the Fatherland Day.
Reznikov has expressed a fear that Putin could send a force even larger than the 300,000 soldiers he conscripted into service in September, perhaps as many as a half million, into the Donbas region as an opening gambit in that push. This could explain the State Department’s concern that Russia could refuse to acknowledge a person’s dual citizenship with the United States and “subject them to mobilization” in the military.
In addition, they reminded people that American credit/debit cards no longer work in Russia, civilian flights into and out of the country are limited and could be cut off altogether without warning, and even relying on cash may not be adequate due to rumored shortages.
In speaking about the State Department’s warning, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov attempted to play it down, saying it’s nothing new in that they’ve heard it all before. In directly addressing the dual citizenship question, he said that “these citizens for us are primarily citizens of Russia, regardless of what citizenship they have,” according to the state-run Tass news agency.
Another facet of the advisory was the possibility of Russian security forces arresting those with American citizenship on false charges and then denying them access to legal representation from the embassy or consulate branches. It has been widely reported that the country’s Federal Security Service (FSB) announced that they have opened an espionage case against an unnamed US citizen.
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