Lots of people took issue with my comment so I'll just end it at this.
1. Regardless of whether the comments were warranted, all the former Soviet Republics had their independence formally recognized by Russia, so right off the bat the ambassador making those comments just makes him sound ignorant. (And really "some European officials acted like dicks, so they had it coming," is not exactly sound reasoning.")
2. Several comments still kept their focus on the effects on Europe, when it was already mentioned that Central Asia and the Caucuses would find such comments problematic. And even then, I think events in the past few months have made it clear that Europe is still on the fence with Cold War 2.0, so it wouldn't be prudent to treat it as a party in America's camp. Divide and rule, anyone?
3. People saying that if Central Asia and the Caucuses have issues with the comments, all China has to do is some simple damage control. Well, I'd rather not have China's officials in those countries be given the unsavory task of doing damage control to begin with.
In the end, yes its just an ambassador making these comments, so while bad its not on the same level as Wang Yi or Xi Jinping making those same comments. And its a PR fuckup, people usually forget about those pretty quickly. Still it does leave a bad taste in one's mouth, especially in the context of the incredibly succesful diplomatic blitz China has recently engaged in.
No, but if you haven't noticed he's been spending the past two months painstakingly cultivating an image of a China devoted to multilateralism and respect for sovereignty, counter to the global vision that Washington imposes on the world. He's got bigger things to worry about at the moment and as stated earlier, the ambassador's comments is just a PR flub that'll likely have no lasting impact. But is it too far fetched to think that if the ambassador actually jeopordized the hardwork that Xi and the foreign policy establishment put in for the past two months, that they wouldn't hesitate to make an example of him?