Putin won’t expel U.S. diplomats
Trump praises move, calls Putin ‘very smart’
MOSCOW • President Vladimir Putin castigated the United States on Friday for trying to punish Russia but said his country will not immediately retaliate and instead will wait for a new U.S. approach by Donald Trump. The president-elect praised Putin’s move and called him “very smart.”
Putin said no U.S. diplomats will be ousted in retaliation for President Barack Obama’s decision to impose sanctions and expel Russian diplomats over allegations of Russian meddling in the American presidential election. The Russian leader said he reserves the right to hit back in the future, but suggested it will be unnecessary because he expects to work with Trump’s administration to improve U.S.-Russia ties.
Still, Putin called Obama’s move a “provocation aimed at further undermining Russian-American relations” less than a month before Trump takes office. In addition to sanctions targeting Russian spy agencies, the U.S. kicked 35 Russian diplomats out of the U.S. and said they were spies.
Trump’s reaction, as it often does, came via Twitter. “Great move on delay (by V. Putin),” Trump tweeted. “I always knew he was very smart!” He pinned the tweet to the top of his Twitter page so that it would remain there prominently and indefinitely even after other tweets are sent.
The move by the incoming president to side with a foreign adversary over the sitting president was a dramatic departure from typical diplomatic practice, further fuelling the burgeoning controversy over what the Obama administration says was a cyberattack against America’s political system.
Putin’s decision to hold off on retaliation came as a surprise; tit-for-tat expulsions are common practice, and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had suggested hours before that Russia would oust 31 American diplomats.
“The Russian diplomats returning home will spend the New Year holidays with their relatives and dear ones,” Putin said in a statement published on the Kremlin website. “We will not create problems for U.S. diplomats. We will not expel anybody.”
He added: “Moreover, I am inviting all children of U.S. diplomats accredited in Russia to the New Year and Christmas parties at the Kremlin.”
Putin appeared to aim at playing a long game and made a barbed reminder that Obama is a lame duck.
The diplomatic confrontation between Washington and Moscow, which had been festering even before Trump won the Nov. 8 presidential election, puts pressure on the billionaire businessman not to let Russia off the hook after he takes office on Jan. 20.
Russia’s government had threatened retaliation, and it continues to deny U.S. accusations that it hacked and stole emails to try to help Trump win.
Trump said the U.S. should move on, but in a sign he was no longer totally brushing off the allegations, he said he plans to meet with U.S. intelligence leaders next week to learn more.
Obama’s sanctions targeted the GRU and FSB, the Russian intelligence agencies the U.S. said were involved in the hacking attacks.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev charged earlier on Friday that Washington has become immersed in “anti-Russian death throes.” Medvedev, who focused on improving U.S.-Russia ties when he was president from 2008-2012, called the latest diplomatic breach “sad” in a Twitter post.