The Crimean peninsula once again became a stumbling block in Moscow’s relations with the United States after the Russian embassy in Washington took issue with the CIA for not including the annexed territory as part of Russia in its World Cup factsheet.
Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. The United States and other allies have refused to recognize the annexation, and levied sanctions against Russia for the action.
The CIA’s Twitter account profiled the participants in the quarterfinal of the World Cup with one-page country summaries over the weekend. The fact sheet on Russia, which was knocked out of the tournament after a penalty shootout loss to Croatia on Saturday, included an internationally recognized map without the Black Sea peninsula included as part of Russia.
"Congratulations accepted," the Twitter account of the Russian Embassy in the U.S. posted early Monday. “Please update your Russia map and statistics.”
Instead of the 17 million square miles of territory and 142.3 million population count in the CIA's fact sheet, the Russian embassy suggested the CIA's World Factbook should be updated with figures that included Crimea: 17.1 million square miles of territory and 146.9 million people. An attached photograph showed a map of Russia including the disputed Crimean territory.
Unlike the regularly traded geopolitical jabs between the Russia foreign ministry and Ukraine's official account on Twitter, the CIA’s social media manager did not respond to Russia's embassy in Washington by the time of publication.
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