Former U.S. ambassadors to Russia and the staff of the American diplomatic service expressed extreme dissatisfaction with what they called a “witch hunt” that takes the form of persecution of the Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak. They warn that “hysteria” around Russia in the Congress and in the media will hurt US interests abroad.
Engineer-physicist by education, Kislyak is the Ambassador of Russia in the United States since 2008. Recently, he was in the center of the scandal, in which White house adviser on national security issues, Michael Flynn (Michael Flynn) was forced to resign because of allegations that he has not informed the Vice-President of Pence on the content of their conversations with the Russian Ambassador.
In March have seen a new wave of this scandal, when the public became aware of the fact that Kislyak privately met with the then Senator Jeff Sissom (Jeff Sessions), which later took the position of attorney General.
During the hearings in Congress on the issue of his statement in the Prosecutor General sessions, under oath, stated that during the election campaign he didn’t speak and didn’t meet with the Russians. Later sessions tried to clarify that in that period of time he met with Kislyak as a member of the Senate Committee on armed forces, and not as a representative of the election headquarters of Donald trump.
Recognition and Roman sessions prompted Democrats and the media to begin an active search for new information about the emergence of dubious events, which was also attended by representatives of the electoral headquarters of the trump.
Since appeared in the media countless reports — many of them accompanied by dark hints to the close relationship of electoral headquarters of the trump with Russia and the Russian involvement in hacking attacks — that Kislyak attended the Republican national Convention and during his speech, trump at Washington in April last year, which was devoted to foreign policy, and even during the President’s address to both houses of Congress.
Democrats seized on the reports, saying that they are evidence of close ties to the administration trump with Moscow. A member of the house of representatives Eric Swalwell (Eric Swalwell) launched this week a site called “Connecting the Tramp-Russia Dots” with a portrait Kislyak on the main page.
Agency CNN reported that “current and former U.S. intelligence officials called Kislyak main spy and recruiter of spies”.
“It’s perfect nonsense, — said Wayne merry (Wayne Merry), senior fellow at the American foreign policy Council, who worked in Russia as US Ambassador, and was for many years familiar with Kislyak. Is a real witch hunt, which is based on paranoia and hysteria. Usually paranoia and hysteria covers the Russian. The fact that these conspiracy theories and paranoia now come from the Americans, makes me feel extremely uncomfortable”.
Two former U.S. ambassadors to Russia came to the defense of dubious in their interviews that they gave the newspaper The Hill. We are talking about Michael McFaul (Michael McFaul), strongly criticized trump, whose Ambassador to Russia appointed by President Obama, and John Byerly (John Beyrle), which in this position was appointed by George W. Bush, but who has worked for three years under the Obama administration.
In the interview, McFaul and Beyrle stressed that the Russian Ambassador was just doing his job and that now there is no evidence of conspiracy between him and the representatives of the election headquarters of the trump.
According to McFaul and Byerly, they are very much concerned about evidence of Russian interference in presidential elections in the United States. They believe that it is necessary to conduct an independent investigation to find out what had really happened.
However, in their opinion, statements and hints that Kislyak was in all this a key figure — that is, that the representatives of the election headquarters trump could collude with Kislyak in broad daylight, right on Capitol hill or during performances trump is just absurd.
“Work Kislyak is to meet with government officials and representatives of election headquarters, and I think he’s good at his job — said McFaul. American officials should meet the Russian Ambassador, and to call it a crime or to discourage them is wrong. I would like to see the Russian government as much as possible knew about the American political process. When I was Ambassador, I was very disappointed by how little the Russian government knows this. To meet Kislyak is not bad, but good”.
Experts in matters of national security in General agree that the sessions and other members of the team trump behaved incorrectly in Russian.
According to experts, they ought to inform the Congress about their encounters with Kislyak.
According to them, Flynn made the mistake of discussing with Russian diplomats the question of sanctions during the transition period when the President was still Obama.
However, according to former diplomats, the atmosphere in Washington, which arise around everything that has anything to do with Russia getting out of control.
“Today any message about trump or Russia is accompanied by a typical for Washington, a storm of indignation, — said Byerly. — It does not mean that we do not need to conduct an investigation. The fact that Russia intervened in the presidential election, is already little doubt, therefore, to hold an investigation is necessary. However, to conclude that Kislyak is a key negative character in this story, is to miss the essence”.
According to experts in the field of national security, the scandal of dubious can turn into a serious foreign policy consequences and may greatly complicate the work of current U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Tefft (John Tefft) or its successor, Jon Huntsman (Jon Huntsman).
“The Russians often adhere to the principle of reciprocity, said Beyrle. — If we do some action against them, they often respond to us the same.”
McFaul had to experience this principle for yourself. He often got on the front pages of Russian Newspapers, which accused him of fomenting revolution.
“Russian media have demonized me and called me different words, and I don’t want Americans to do now with the dubious fact that the Russian government did to me, explained McFaul. — This has a negative impact on Russian-American relations. People should have the opportunity to meet with him, without fearing that they will be included in the list of double agents. To say that this man is an intelligence agent, while not having any documentary evidence, it is dangerous.”
According to Nicholas Gvozdev (Nikolas Gvosdev), Professor at the naval war College specializing in national security issues, if the congressmen will be afraid of meetings with foreign ambassadors, this would adversely affect the interests of the United States.
Gvozdev warned that the hysteria around Kislyak may force Russia to block covert diplomatic channels that are necessary in order to allow countries to cooperate even at a basic level.
“Russia is a major player. We need to talk — said Gvozdev. — Now we create the Foundation for our future diplomatic relations with Russia, and it will be much harder to cope with serious challenges on their part”.
By Andrey sushentsov, head of Moscow’s foreign policy Advisory group and program Director of the Valdai club, said that the damage was already done.
“The impression that the “Russian issue” being one of the points in the cultural wars of America — wrote Sushentsov in his email. — Demonizing a foreign partner for the sake of achieving political goals, the United States limit their opportunities in the field of global governance and diplomacy”.
“Russia did not expect that her relationship with the US will improve significantly, but she tried very hard not to make them worse. Russia needs predictability and stability in relations with the United States — even if this stability is of a negative character. The current climate in Washington does not allow to achieve it.”
