Ambassador for a spanking

On February 9, Russian semi-official media, citing a "source in the leadership of the parliament," spread the news: Moscow had decided on a candidate for the post of Russia's new ambassador to the United States. Sergey Kislyak's successor will be Anatoly Antonov, former Deputy Minister of Defense, and now Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation

If they really try to send Antonov to Washington as an extraordinary and plenipotentiary representative of Russia, this will be a serious “lice test” of the Trump administration. Indeed, in this case, the credentials will be presented by a person against whom sanctions have been imposed by almost all of Washington's allies in NATO - both the Western European states and Canada.

Antonov was transferred from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Ministry of Defense in 2011 to help the then Minister Serdyukov, who felt insecure in international affairs. Soon the finest hour came for Anatoly Ivanovich. He managed with maximum force to embody what Moscow now calls the offensive style in diplomacy. Its essence lies in the ability not only to express disagreement with the opponent, but to do it in an extremely rude and cheeky manner.

This is how Antonov, for example, “explained” to US Deputy Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller why the American proposal to exchange information on missile defense was not suitable for Moscow: “Well, you have a lot of different dresses and coats in your wardrobes. And what's the point if you inform us about what's gathering dust there. After all, tomorrow you can buy something new.”

Antonov showed no less rhetorical skill in denouncing Turkish President Erdogan after a Russian bomber was shot down. He stated that both the head of the neighboring state and his entire family are involved in the financing of terrorist organizations, and noted that Turkish leaders will not recognize anything, "even if their faces are smeared with thieves' oil."

Antonov's rhetorical abilities were at their fullest during the conflict in Ukraine. It was he who interpreted Moscow's obligations in such a way that the sudden check of the Armed Forces announced on February 26, 2014 (under the guise of which Russian formations advanced to the Ukrainian border) does not need international observers. He later explained to the incomprehensible military attache that observers should not be invited even later, when the “check” smoothly turned into “maneuvers”. Yes, according to the 2011 OSCE Vienna Document, it is mandatory to invite foreign observers to any exercise if the number of participants exceeds 9,000 people. But after all, Russian formations, whose numbers far exceeded this figure, turned out to be not carrying out single maneuvers, but many small ones. And each time the number of military personnel involved did not reach 9 thousand.

It was Antonov who, in a prosecutorial tone, was reading endless “questions” to Ukraine when a Malaysian Boieng was shot down in the sky over Donbass. In one of them, Antonov demanded that Kyiv comment on the reports of a “Spanish dispatcher” that did not exist in nature, that the liner was allegedly escorted by two Ukrainian military aircraft.

The zeal of the Deputy Minister did not go unnoticed. From the Kremlin, he, who had not served in the army for a day, received the Order of Military Merit, and from other states he received a place on the sanctions list. By the way, according to Kommersant sources, the Kremlin was going to send Antonov to the United States for further production of whips, believing that Hillary Clinton would become the next president. But he seems to have been deemed fit for Trump as well. After all, if the bosses order, Antonov becomes extremely accommodating. Suffice it to recall how, when working on the START Treaty, our hard-nosed patriot easily lost ground to the same Rose Gottemoeller: he agreed to consider each strategic bomber (and the Americans have many more of them than ours), capable of carrying up to 20 cruise missiles, to be considered only as one warhead...