The United States has asked Russia to waive the diplomatic immunity of a Russian diplomat who is accused of drunk driving and hitting a New York City policeman.

A spokesman for the U.S. mission at the United Nations said the request concerns Ilya Morozov, a diplomat at Russia’s U.N. mission.

Russia has not yet responded to the request.

Incidentally, while we’re on the subject on immunity from international prosecution though, it was hard enough to get the US subject to war crime trials. They had previously threatened to veto UN peacekeeping operations if its demands for exemption from prosecution by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague were not met.

They had also tried blackmailing several countries into supporting them on that position by threatening to withdraw aid. The prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib put the end to any support the US had on this issue.

So no, I don’t think Russia is going to fall over itself to support you on this one. Bad as this diplomat’s behavior was, if the situation was reversed, would you really expect the US administration to let one of their citizens be put on trial here?