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Interlocutor for McCain
Hardliner becomes Russia's new ambassador to the United States
Yesterday, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced the appointment of 57-year-old Sergei Kislyak ( pictured ) as Russia's Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United States, and also as its permanent observer at the Organization of American States in Washington. President Dmitry Medvedev signed the corresponding decree on July 26.Back in May, experts called this very cautious and closed diplomat, not too fond of the press, the most likely successor to former Ambassador to the United States Yuri Ushakov , who held this post for nine years. On June 2, the Kremlin press service reported that the Russian President had relieved Mr. Ushakov of his duties as Ambassador to the United States. Later, the diplomat was appointed deputy chief of staff of the Russian government, Sergei Sobyanin - in fact, Yuri Ushakov became a foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
The announcement of Mr. Kislyak's appointment coincided with a statement made yesterday from Smolensk Square about the possibility of a sharp turn in Russian-American relations. A diplomatic source said that Moscow is ready “for any development of events” in bilateral relations” caused by the results of the presidential elections in the United States. To the point that Russia can afford “to have no relations at all with certain partners, if they so desire.”
Experts believe that these words were not so much parting words for the new ambassador to the United States, but rather a response to the anti-Russian attacks of US presidential candidate John McCain. On Sunday, he said that he considers the path along which ex-president and current prime minister Vladimir Putin is leading Russia to be “very harmful.” McCain argues that in the field of foreign policy, Russia is behaving like an autocratic state - cutting oil supplies to the Czech Republic in retaliation for the missile defense agreement with the United States, squeezing the British company BP out of the country, and putting pressure on Georgia and Ukraine. In response to a question about his promise to expel Russia from the G8, McCain said he would try to get Moscow to “better its behavior” - saying, “we want Russia to behave better internationally, and we have every right to expect that.” "
Sergei Kislyak took the post of ambassador to Washington at a time of noticeable cooling in relations between the United States and Russia. However, Vremya Novostey's interlocutors, who wished to remain anonymous, are convinced that Mr. Kislyak will cope with the job under these conditions, because he is known as a hard-liner. And his appointment “may also be a signal of Russia’s readiness to pursue a new course with the new American administration” - especially if in November US citizens elect the irreconcilable McCain to take over the White House.
The new ambassador in America is well known. Until his new appointment, as Deputy Head of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Mr. Kislyak oversaw relations with the United States, issues of strategic stability, relations with the G8 and contacts with the United States on the Iranian nuclear dossier. He has been in diplomatic work since 1977, and in 1995-1998 he headed the department for security and disarmament issues. In 1998-2003, Mr. Kislyak was the Russian Ambassador to Belgium and concurrently the Russian Permanent Representative to NATO. VN’s sources note that, being by primary education not a diplomat, but a “techie” - a graduate of the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute, Mr. Kislyak was not too eager to “smooth the corners” in the negotiations, although he was a cautious negotiator.
Now the expert community is wondering who will replace Kislyak at the Foreign Ministry. Among the candidates are two graduates of MGIMO in 1978, and now heads of departments. One of them is a graduate of the Faculty of International Relations, Igor Neverov, who heads the North American Foreign Ministry department; he was previously a minister-counselor at the Russian Embassy in the United States. Another possible candidate is a graduate of the Faculty of International Economic Relations of the same university, Director of the Department of Security and Disarmament Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Anatoly Antonov. Mr. Antonov is considered an even more private figure than Kislyak, and his nominee. VN’s interlocutors question his diplomatic flexibility and recall with nostalgia Kislyak’s predecessor in the place of Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Mamedov, under whom diplomats from the departments he supervised were more open. But still, experts are inclined to believe that “according to private practice,” an unknown figure will take Kislyak’s place. At the same time, the position being vacated by Kislyak is “key,” so the appointee must be loyal to the head of the foreign policy department.
Yesterday, a warning was sounded from Smolensk Square about Russia’s readiness to “stop conducting substantive discussions on issues of interest to the American side” - they say that the two countries are now connected only by the issue of “strategic stability”, and after its destruction, Russia and the United States “will be in free floating” . This statement was commented on by Alexander Pikaev, head of the disarmament and conflict resolution department of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The expert attributed the strengthening of hardliners in Russian foreign policy to miscalculations by the American side. The discussion of disarmament problems is stalled, there is no progress in the preparation of a new treaty that should replace START-1, and there has been a pause in resolving the issue of resuscitating the CFE Treaty. In addition, Moscow could be offended by the fact that immediately after the conversation between Presidents George W. Bush and Dmitry Medvedev in Hokkaido at the G8 meeting, the Americans signed an agreement with the Czech Republic on the deployment of a missile defense system radar, which in Russia is perceived as a threat: “This was perceived as a signal to the Russian leadership that the Americans will continue to take a hard line against Russia and ignore its security interests.”
Alexander Pikaev notes that between Russia and the United States there is no longer the same dependence that was characteristic of the 1990s, primarily because Moscow has already paid off its debts. The expert recalled the meager bilateral trade turnover ($17.6 billion in 2007) and the absence of “serious projects in the field of high technology that are interesting for Russia.” Hypothetically, Moscow could interrupt the conversation on issues that are interesting to the Americans and not interesting to Russia, “but there are not many such issues” - for example, cooperation in Iraq and Afghanistan. “We would be interested in reaching an agreement with the United States on the CIS space, but they are not agreeing to do this, there are not even consultations with them on this issue,” noted the VN expert.