Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Putin won’t oust US diplomats from Moscow
Russian leader opts to play nice and wait for Trump
Russian president avoids reciprocal punishment following Obama’s order to remove 35 envoys, and instead opts to wait and woo Donald Trump’s administration.
MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin took the high road Friday, bowing out of a growing diplomatic showdown with the administration of President Barack Obama in a gambit to woo his successor, Donald Trump.
In was a rare, and calculated, break from the diplomatic tradition of reciprocal punishment, Putin opted to do nothing after the United States said it would expel 35 Russian diplomats and close a pair of Russianowned properties in retaliation for what it said was Moscow’s meddling in the 2016 presidential elections.
Putin said that he would wait to see how U.S.-Russian relations develop under the new Trump administration before planning “any further steps” on the issue.
Until Putin’s surprise decision Friday, all signs pointed toward the familiar, hard-nosed Kremlin response of years past. In 2013, when Russia was slapped with U.S. sanctions over the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, Putin shot back by signing a ban on all foreign adoptions of Russian children, just days after Christmas, sparking outrage.
But this time, with the Kremlin bidding farewell to Obama and betting that a friendly Trump administration will bring fresh opportunities to escape sanctions and make a grab for greater power status, Putin waxed magnanimous.
“We will not create any problems for U.S. diplomats,” Putin said in a statement Friday. “We will not expel anyone. We will not prevent their families and children from using their traditional leisure sites during the New Year’s holidays.”
Instead of sending the U.S. diplomats home, Putin invited their kids over for “the New Year and Christmas children’s parties in the Kremlin.”
Then he wished the Obamas a happy new year and bid season’s greetings to “Donald Trump and the American people.”
One person in particular appreciated that approach.
“Great move on delay (by V. Putin) — I always knew he was very smart!” Trump wrote in a tweet Friday, his latest public expression of admiration for the Russian leader.
Russia has denied and ridiculed accusations by Obama and the U.S. intelligence community that it sponsored hackers to steal and then leak sensitive information about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton to sway the election in favor of Trump. Putin on Friday accused the United States of engaging in “irresponsible ‘kitchen’ diplomacy” and said Russia would retain its “right to retaliate.”
Meanwhile, a code associated with the Russian hacking operation dubbed Grizzly Steppe by President Barack Obama’s administration has been detected within the system of a Vermont utility, according to U.S. officials.
While the Russians did not actively use the code to disrupt operations of the utility, according to officials who asked for anonymity in order to discuss a security matter, the penetration of the nation’s electrical grid is significant because it represents a potentially serious vulnerability.
Trump’s unorthodox views on Putin have sent shock waves through his own party, and the sanctions against Russia imposed by Obama on Thursday will present him with a new challenge. Should the Republican choose to remove some or all of the sanctions after his inauguration next month, he would be acting in opposition to public statements made by congressional GOP leaders — and forcing them to decide whether to accept or resist his efforts to remake U.S.-Russian relations.
Still, Putin’s decision not to escalate the situation may make it easier, if just marginally, for him to do that.
In declining a “symmetrical response,” Putin disregarded a public proposal from his foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, who suggested the expulsion of 35 U.S. diplomats and the closure of two U.S.-owned properties in Moscow a warehouse and a dacha used for receptions.
That retreat was far humbler than the compounds lost to the Russians, a luxurious 45-acre estate at Pioneer Point in Maryland, a site purchased by the Soviet government in 1972 that features tennis courts and bungalows. In New York, Russian diplomatic staff members were evicted from a mansion on Long Island’s Gold Coast. The estate in Oyster Bay was purchased by the Soviets in 1952.
“Putin’s asymmetric response to Obama’s new sanctions is an investment in the incoming Trump presidency,” Dmitri Trenin, the head of the Moscow Carnegie Center, wrote online shortly after Putin’s announcement.
Putin’s decision followed a drumbeat of threats from Russian officials about coming countersanctions that focused their ire on the outgoing Obama administration.