The Russian ambassador
at the center of FBI investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and its aftermath is heading back to Moscow after 17 years here.
WASHINGTON — Remarkably fresh despite the tropical heat, Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak was doing what he does best: hobnobbing in a room full of diplomats and dignitaries.
Only the setting was unusual for the most famous — or infamous — foreign envoy assigned to Washington in decades. He was in Cancun, Mexico, last week on the sidelines of a meeting of the Organization of American States, a regional body.
What in the world was Kislyak doing there?
“I am representing Russia,” Kislyak, 66, told The Washington Bureau.
But he won’t be doing that much longer, at least not in the United States.
The veteran Russian diplomat at the center of much of the FBI investigation into Moscow’s alleged meddling in the U.S. election and its aftermath is stepping down after nearly a decade as ambassador.
It’s not clear if he is retiring. The Kremlin says it’s a routine rotation.
Kislyak had been widely reported destined for a senior post at the United Nations.
Instead, he said, he thinks he will just go back to Russia.
“It’s been 17 years,” Kislyak said, referring to his current stint and an earlier eight-year assignment to the Russian mission at the U.N. and the Russian Embassy in Washington at a more junior level. “My wife wants to go home.”
Including a posting in Brussels, his career as a diplomat spanned the turbulence of the late Cold War, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the rise of President Vladimir Putin and tension with the Obama administration.
Then came the U.S. presidential election last year.
Kislyak’s meetings with several of President Donald Trump’s top campaign aides or surrogates have come under intense scrutiny as a special counsel investigates whether anyone improperly cooperated with Russian efforts to interfere with the U.S. election.
The president’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn, was forced to resign in February for misleading the White House about his conversations with Kislyak. Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from supervising the Russia probe after it was disclosed he had failed to disclose his meetings with Kislyak last year.
Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, met with Kislyak in December at Trump Tower. The Russian ambassador then arranged for him to meet a Putin ally who heads a Russian stateowned bank subject to U.S. sanctions.
The FBI reportedly is reviewing those meetings.
Kislyak’s defenders said his contacts with Trump’s team were part of the routine duties of any diplomat.
But perhaps the ambassador’s most jarring meeting was in the Oval Office.
On May 10, a day after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, who was heading the Russia investigation, Trump welcomed Kisylak and his boss, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in for a chat.
The White House barred U.S. media from the meeting. But Lavrov brought a TASS photographer, who was quick to post photos.
Leaked accounts later indicated that Trump revealed classified intelligence to the pair.
Kislyak has found himself under an increasingly uncomfortable spotlight.
Despite all the controversy, Kislyak is frequently described as affable, even jovial.
Meanwhile, the official Russian Sputnik News Service has reported that Kislyak’s successor in Washington would likely be Anatoly Antonov, a 30year veteran of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Kislyak remains a diplomat to the end.
Asked if he felt he was being treated shabbily in Washington, he replied with a smile, “But what do you mean?”