‘We have waited long enough’
Russia defends slashing US diplomatic staff as hope of mending relations fades
MOSCOW justified its decision to purge US diplomatic personnel in the country yesterday, as the Kremlin appeared to give up on hopes of improving ties in the near future under Donald Trump.
President Vladimir Putin announced on Sunday that the US would have to slash its diplomatic staff in Russia by 755 after Moscow struck back against new sanctions passed by the US Congress.
The move represents one of the biggest single reductions of US personnel by Moscow, with Putin warning he could retaliate further later.
“We have waited long enough, hoping the situation would perhaps change for the better,” he said.
Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said yesterday any hopes of mending Russia-US ties rested on “curing the worsening political schizophrenia” in Washington, but admitted the two sides appeared far away from any improvement.
But he did insist Russia remained keen on “continuing cooperation in the areas that correspond to our interests”.
The US State Department earlier called Moscow’s move “regrettable and uncalled for” and said it was assessing how to respond.
US Vice-President Mike Pence, while on a visit to Estonia yesterday, said: “We hope for better days, for better relations with Russia.”
The US Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a bill to toughen sanctions on Russia for allegedly meddling in last year’s US presidential election and its intervention in Ukraine.
Iran and North Korea are also targeted in the sanctions bill.
The White House said Trump intended to sign off on the legislation despite complaining earlier it would cut off the president’s room for diplomatic manoeuvring.
Russia’s foreign ministry on Friday struck preemptively by ordering Washington to reduce its diplomatic presence to 455 by September 1 to match the size of Russia’s mission in the US.
It also froze two embassy compounds in Moscow from today.
Putin confirmed 755 US diplomats and local Russian personnel would be forced to stop working.
There will not necessarily be a mass expulsion of US diplomats as the vast majority of the US’s roughly 1 200 embassy and consulate staff in Russia are Russian citizens.
Reducing their numbers will affect embassy and consular operations, but does not carry the same diplomatic impact as expelling US diplomats from the country.
Ties between Russia and the US slumped to their lowest since the Cold War as Washington slapped sanctions on Moscow over its 2014 seizure of Crimea from Ukraine and backing for an insurgency in the country.
During his presidential campaign Trump repeatedly pledged to fix ties, but allegations that Putin launched a hacking and influence campaign to get him to the White House made any concessions to Russia politically toxic.
Now analysts agree the Kremlin’s decision shows Moscow has lost patience on Trump making good on his promises.
Forcing the US to scale back its diplomatic presence will reinforce Putin’s reputation at home as a resolute defender of Russia’s interests, helping to burnish his image before next year’s presidential election.
But the consequences are not so stark that the move would permanently alienate the US president, Alexander Baunov of the Moscow Carnegie Centre think tank says.
By announcing his counter-measures before Trump signed the sanctions legislation into law, “Putin is sending a message that he is punishing Congress’s America, and not Trump’s America,” Baunov wrote in a Facebook post.
“[He] has taken Trump out of direct line of fire and spared his ego.”
An embassy spokeswoman declined immediate comment.