Russia says Obama is a 'lame duck' and 5 other examples of undiplomatic diplomacy

Russian diplomats in the UK took to Twitter on Thursday to memeify their displeasure about US President Barack Obama's decision to kick out 35 of their colleagues working in America.

They posted a picture of a baby duck with the word "lame" struck across it — a reference to a 'lame duck' elected official who loses influence with other politicians when they only have a short time left in office.

This got IBTimes UK thinking about five other times global diplomacy has been anything but diplomatic.

1. President-elect Donald Trump says Nigel Farage would be a great UK ambassador to US

Shortly after former UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage became the first British politician to visit President-elect Donald Trump following the 2016 election, Trump tweeted Farage would make a great ambassador to the US. The Prime Minister's office issued a statement saying there was "no vacancy" for the post and banned cabinet ministers from speaking with Farage.

2. Philippino President Rodrigo Duterte calls President Obama a "son of a whore"

In September 2016 before meeting with the President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, President Obama said that he wanted Duterte to fight his war on drugs in the "the right way." Obama planned to discuss Duterte's thousands of extrajudicial killings with him.

"You must be respectful," Duterte said in response. "Do not just throw away questions and statements. Son of a whore." Obama cancelled the meeting soon after.

3. Russian agent poops on American diplomat's carpet

Diplomatic relations have frayed since the US placed sanctions on Russian oligarchs, politicians, and corporations following President Vladimir Putin's annexation of the Crimean region of Ukraine in 2014.

Things have become so bad that over the summer American diplomats shared concerns about intimidation they faced from Russian security services. During Obama's first term Russian intelligence killed the US defense attache's dog after breaking into his home in Moscow. A former US ambassador to Russia also said he was hounded by government-paid protestors and that Russian intelligence agents followed his children to school. One diplomat said an intruder pooped on his living room carpet.

4. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev bangs his shoe in protest at the UN

On 12 October 1960 Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev pounded his shoe on his desk at a UN General Assembly meeting to protest a speech being given by the head of the Filipino delegation. The Filipino official had referred to Eastern Europeans who "have been deprived of the free exercise of their civil and political rights" after being "swallowed up, so to speak, by the Soviet Union".

5. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson's offensive poem about Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Months before becoming the UK's Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson won the President Erdogan Offensive Poetry competition launched by The Spectator on 18 May 2016. The poem is about how Erdogan has sex with a goat. Johnson calls him a "terrific wankerer." Johnson has refused to apologise for the poem since becoming foreign secretary. In another diplomacy blunder, Boris made it known to his EU partners in November of this year that a founding principle of the EU allowing freedom of movement was "bollocks". The claim prompted the German finance minister Wolfgang Schauble to suggest Johnson be sent a copy of the Lisbon treaty to "read about the fact that there's a certain connection between the single market and the four freedoms".