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Russia rebukes 'undiplomatic' US envoy
The Foreign Ministry expressed extreme bewilderment at remarks Michael McFaul made in a university lecture in Friday, which it said went far beyond the boundaries of diplomatic etiquette and amounted to a deliberate distortion of several aspects of the Russian-American dialogue. McFaul is the architect of President Barack Obamas reset, which has improved ties that had become increasingly strained during the administrations of George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin and hit a low with Russias war against Georgia in 2008. But the plain-spoken envoy has been clouded by controversy since he arrived in January - shortly after Putin, employing anti-American rhetoric in his successful campaign to return to the presidency, accused the United States of stirring up protests against his rule. The ministry took issue with McFauls statement that Russia had put a big bribe on the table to get Kyrgyzstan to order the United States out of a transit facility it uses to support operations in Afghanistan - a reference to a $2 billion loan widely perceived that way by analysts at the time, in 2009. McFaul prefaced the remark by saying he would not be speaking very diplomatically, and added half-jokingly that the United States had offered its own bribe but that it was about 10 times smaller. In a statement issued late on Monday, the Foreign Ministry said McFaul knows better (than Russia) what bribes Washington gave to whom. It dismissed as unprofessional McFauls statement that Russia had at times proposed deals in which the United States would make concessions on one issue in exchange for Russian support on another unrelated issue, a practice he said President Barack Obama has rejected. The ministry stopped short of saying the remarks could damage relations but said it was not the first time statements and actions of Mr. McFaul ... have caused shock. Posted by: Steve White 2012-05-30 |
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