Russian diplomats barricade on their cars and refuse to take alcohol tests on Argentina

[u/Ramiro564]

https://www.clarin.com/ciudades/tension-retiro-conductor-auto-diplomatico-embajada-rusia-niega-hacer-control-alcoholemia-encerro-auto_0_hPkuHAt974.html?srsltid=AfmBOooKfwCDo-EGZJPVHsrKCKcUDAQi490en_fmV8biWslr19ZjwAwQ

[u/himitsuuu]

I'm very worried by the fact the local police even tried to breathalyze a diplomat

[u/Ace_of_Sevens → u/himitsuuu]

My understanding is they can't arrest them, but they can keep them from driving.

[u/ecz4 → u/Ace_of_Sevens]

The host nation needs the guest nation's permission before starting criminal proceedings against their diplomat. Being stopped in traffic is not a criminal proceeding and diplomats have no immunity against that. In this case the diplomats are in the wrong - thought it is unlikely they will suffer any consequences.

[u/irredentistdecency → u/ecz4]

They can pull you over but they can’t enter the vehicle or require the occupants to exit the vehicle.

Other than the diplomatic credentials, they cannot require any documents, tests or perform any searches.

If the local cops are convinced that the person is drunk, they can detain the vehicle temporarily as a safety measure.

I can’t speak for all countries but when that happened in my experience, we’d just send someone out from the embassy to drive the car & the person back to the embassy.

[u/JasonGMMitchell → u/ecz4]

No they don't need permission, they can request permission if they want to follow international law while the other country commits genocide but demands diplomatic immunity for their drunk ambassadors.

[u/irredentistdecency → u/Ace_of_Sevens]

I used to work as a diplomatic security officer & the country I worked for made a point of telling its staff that driving drunk would not be tolerated & you could be sent home to face charges or have your immunity waived & prosecuted by the host country if you did so.

That said, unless you caused an accident, the local cops would usually just call the embassy & someone like me would have to go out to pick up the credentialed person & drive their vehicle back to the embassy.

How fucked that person would be the next morning would depend entirely on their diplomatic rank & the report filed by the DSO who picked them up.

Generally speaking, they would not submit to a breathalyzer so really the only official determination & record of how intoxicated they were was made by the DSO sent to pick them up (although I know of one case where a blood sample was taken when they returned to the embassy).

There were plenty of times I got sent out to pick someone up where the person clearly wasn’t drunk but because they aren’t permitted to submit to a breathalyzer, it was policy for us to pick them up anyway.

I would include a paragraph in my report detailing the extent of their inebriation & it would be sent to their boss & my boss.

If they were clearly sloppy drunk, I’d copy the next higher level in the chain as well.

If you seemed at all impaired to the DSO, you were going to have a bad time which could range from a formal reprimand to being sent home in disgrace.

If you were sloppy, you were at least getting sent home & may face charges as well.