The German embassy also joined the pile-on, with slapstick consequences.
One of the many rudimentary tasks of embassies and consulates is to promote and support educational exchange programs, scholarships, and academic partnerships with host countries. This is precisely what Russia’s embassy in Mexico has been doing on social media. On January 8, it posted a tweet informing young Mexican students that there was only one week left for them to apply for a scholarship to study at a Russian university during the 2025-26 academic year.
However, within a few days, the US and German embassies in Mexico had hijacked the thread. First, the US embassy posted a tweet on Jan 13 warning about study and work opportunities in Russia, recalling that “a level 4 travel alert for travel to Russia remains in effect” — for USians, of course, not Mexicans:
“We urge all prospective students who are offered study opportunities in Russia to carefully review the details of the scholarship or work-study program for which they have been recruited, in order to ensure that the program is legitimate and that the work or study undertaken matches the advertised information. We remind US citizens that a level 4 travel alert on travel to Russia remains in effect.”
“Students should be aware of the dangers of being forced into alternative activities in Russia’s defence industry upon their arrival. According to media reports, third-country nationals have come to Russia with false promises and have been forced to work in the Russian defence industry and, in some cases, to fight in its war against Ukraine.”
The tweet produced some interesting responses:
Translation: “LOL, of course I’m going to study in a decadent empire — an empire with an opioid crisis”, to which the US responded (with a smiling emoji):
The United States is a country where criticism is allowed, and that is what allows us to continue improving.
And that was an open invitation for the following tweet (translation: “careful what you say, Daddy”) featuring a photograph of the independent journalist Sam Husseini being forcibly picked up and dragged from a State Department press conference after confronting Secretary of State Anthony Blinken about his support for Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, which happened just two days after the US embassy’s tweet:
Germany Joins the Fray
On Jan 14th, Germany’s embassy in Mexico piled on with a tweet of its own, titled:
“Study in Russia? Better choose Germany!”
The tweet suggested that instead of heading to Russia, Mexican students would be better off going to Germany, where “they will find prestigious universities and better quality of life”. The German embassy also dutifully retweeted the message posted by the US embassy.
In a response dripping with sarcasm, the Russian embassy thanked its US counterpart for its interest in Russia’s international scholarship program. It also pointed out that attending a Russian university is a great way to “broaden horizons” in this transitional period to a multipolar world, adding that the program is also open to “our American friends.”
As for the German embassy, if its intention was to hamper Russia’s PR campaign for its study programs, it seems to have backfired completely. For a start, far more young, aspiring Mexicans will have heard about those programs thanks to the US and German embassies’ ham-fisted attempts at online trolling.
Some X users posted videos of German police beating pro-Palestine protesters, others ridiculed the government for its self-inflicted economic crisis and/or its US vassalage. A common target of their disdain was the German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, sometimes shown in photographs alongside Syria’s new “transitional” Prime Minister (and former Al-Qaida kingpin), Mohammed al-Bashir.
For every user that appeared to show a genuine interest in studying in Germany, there were dozens more who scoffed at the idea. One shared the following tweet, suggesting that today’s Germany may not be such a welcoming place for Mexican students:
But the German embassy just kept digging. On Jan 15, the new ambassador, Clemens von Goetze, published an op-ed in El Economista in which he outlined some of the shared challenges facing Germany and Mexico and the need to confront them together. Those challenges apparently include the war in Ukraine, upon which Mexico’s former AMLO and current Sheinbaum governments have maintained a strictly neutral stance, much to Washington and the EU’s chagrin…
Continue reading on Naked Capitalism
Nick Corbishley 