MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia (Russia) on Friday responded to a flood of new US sanctions by saying it would expel ten US diplomats and retaliate in a tense clash with Washington.
Russia’s foreign ministry has also released a list of eight current or former U.S. officials banned from entering the country, including U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray, director of national intelligence. Avril Haines and Home Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also said that Moscow would close the US non-governmental organizations living in Russia to end what he described as their involvement in Russian politics.
The top Russian diplomat said the Kremlin suggested that US Ambassador John Sullivan follow the example of his Russian counterpart and go home for consultation. Russia will also deny the US embassy the possibility of appointing support staff from Russia and third countries, restricting the visits of US diplomats serving at the embassy in the short term and tightening the requirements for US diplomats’ travel in the country.
The others banned from entering Russia are Susan Rice, a former UN ambassador and now head of the Home Affairs Council; John Bolton, who was a national security adviser under former President Donald Trump; James Woolsey, a former CIA director; and Michael Carvajal, director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
The Biden government on Thursday announced sanctions against Russia for interfering in the US presidential election in 2020 and involvement in the SolarWind cap of federal agencies – activities that Moscow has denied. The US ordered the expulsion of ten Russian diplomats, who targeted dozens of companies and individuals, and imposed new barriers to Russia’s ability to borrow money.
While the US is using force to paralyze the Russian economy, Moscow lacks the leverage to respond in kind, although it could harm US interests worldwide in other ways.
Lavrov called Washington’s move “absolutely unfriendly and inattentive”, and said that while Russia could take “painful measures” against US business interests in Russia, it would not immediately move to do so and “save for future use”. .
He warned that if Washington increased the pressure further, the US might ask to reduce the number of embassies and consular staff from about 450 to 300. He said both countries offer about 450 diplomats, but that includes 150 Russians at the UN in New York that he argued should not be included.
Russia’s economic potential and its global reach are limited compared to the Soviet Union, which competed with the United States for international influence during the Cold War. Yet Russia’s nuclear arsenal and its leverage in many parts of the world make it a force to be reckoned with by Washington.
President Joe Biden was aware of this and demanded that tensions be eased and that the door be kept open for cooperation with Russia in certain areas. Biden said in a call to Putin on Tuesday that he would prefer not to impose tougher sanctions now and proposed meeting in a third country this summer.
Lavrov said Russia had a “positive attitude” towards the top offer and analyzed it, but a statement issued shortly afterwards by the foreign ministry noted that it was “being studied in the context of the developing situation.” “
The ministry has accused Russia of wanting to avoid further escalation and engage in a ‘calm and professional dialogue’, but it has other ways of retaliating as Washington seeks to increase the pressure.
While the new US sanctions further limited Russia’s ability to borrow money by banning US financial institutions from buying Russian government bonds directly from state institutions, they did not target the secondary market.
“It is very important that there are no sanctions on secondary debt, because that means non-US people can buy the debt and sell it to the US people,” said Tom Adshead, director of research at Macro-Advisory Ltd, ” an analysis and consulting firm.
Timothy Frye, a Columbia University political scientist, noted that Biden chose not to direct the prospective Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline to Germany or to pursue large Russian state-owned companies.
“It is part of the broader strategy to use sanctions, but also to reach out to the Kremlin to propose talks on strategic stability and ultimately a summit,” he said.
Stricter restrictions would also hurt Western businesses, inflict significant economic pain on ordinary Russians and enable Putin to recruit anti-American sentiments to supplement his rule.
The tightening of sanctions could eventually drive Russia into a corner and cause more reckless actions by the Kremlin, which could lead to an increase in Ukraine, an increase in clashes with Russia-backed separatists in the east and a massive Had Russian troop cultivation across the border. .
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was in Paris on Friday to discuss tensions with French President Emmanuel Macron. After a joint call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the three requested Russia to withdraw its troops to degenerate the situation.
Fyodor Lukyanov, a leading foreign policy expert who heads the Moscow Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, predicted that Putin would likely accept Biden’s invitation to join the call for climate change next week, but that he could drag his feet on the supply from the top.
“There is no way to enter into transactions,” Lukyanov said. “There is a mutual antipathy and a total lack of confidence.”
He said the only practical outcome of the summit could be an agreement to start long and difficult talks on replacing the New START nuclear reduction agreement, which extended Russia and the US by another five years in February.
Lukyanov noted that the growing US pressure will push Russia and China closer in the long run.
“Closer cooperation with China on coordinating actions to restrict the United States will now develop more rapidly as the Chinese become interested in it,” he said. While Russia does not have the tools for a symmetrical response to US sanctions, “it has sufficient capabilities to stimulate changes in the world order,” he added.
Konstantin Kosachev, the Kremlin’s deputy speaker of the upper house of parliament, said that the US, by imposing sanctions and proposing a summit at the same time, wanted to take a commanding stance.
“Russia’s consent would be interpreted as a reflection of its efforts to mitigate the sanctions so that the US could secure a dominant position during the meeting, while our refusal to meet would be an appropriate pretext for more sanctions,” “Kosachev wrote on Facebook.
He argued that Russia should not rush to accept Biden’s top offer.
“Revenge is a dish best served cold,” Kosachev wrote. “I believe the saying is very adaptable in a situation when we are not talking about revenge, but a proper response to aggressive action by an opponent.”
Some have predicted that US sanctions could discourage Russia from cooperating with the US on international crises.
“Russia’s position will be tougher on Syria, the Iranian nuclear deal and other issues,” Ivan Timofeev, program director of Russia’s International Affairs Council, said in a statement. Instead of acting as a deterrent, he warned, the sanctions would “only anger Russia and make its policies even tougher.”
But despite rising tensions, Russia and the US have interests in many global places. Moscow, for example, fears that instability from Afghanistan could spread to former Soviet republics in Central Asia, and he is interested in a political settlement there.
As for Iran, Moscow also does not want to see it with nuclear weapons, despite its friendly ties with Tehran.
Lukyanov said Russia would not try to use global hotspots to hurt the US and that it would wait patiently to see them erode US domination.
“It’s not going on here or there on the spoiler,” he said. “The ongoing developments will help accelerate the consolidation process of leading powers against US domination.”
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Associated Press writers Eric Tucker in Washington and Kostya Manenkov contributed.