Moscow Ambassador McFaul's 'reset' with Kremlin stumbles

"There's a lot that McFaul has written and said in his long career, which has been closely tied to Russia, that indicates he wishes the best for this country and its people; he wants Russia to evolve into a modern democracy and to prosper," says Masha Lipman, editor of the Moscow Carnegie Center's Pro et Contra journal. "Of course you can cherry pick from his academic work, which dealt with pro-democracy movements. But in his recent career he's been a promoter of better relations. He clearly sees himself not as an implementer of his academic ideas but as an implementer of Obama's policies."

McFaul arrived just as Russia's presidential election campaign, in which Vladimir Putin was seeking an unprecedented third term as president, was kicking off. During that campaign, Mr. Putin engaged in quite a bit of America-bashing, a theme that plays well in Russia's vast conservative hinterland.

"During the election Putin used anti-American rhetoric extensively and McFaul sort of arrived in the middle of that," says Ms. Lipman. "But there were lots of hints from the Russian government that they had a domestic audience in mind, and that after Putin was reelected all that would end, and we'd return to more normal relations. But the election is over and it's not ending for some reason. The fact that McFaul was singled out by Lavrov in remarks that were condescending and critical, even after the State Department had complained about the harassment, is deeply worrisome."

In an interview yesterday with the Kremlin's RIA-Novosti agency – which may have been an attempt to build bridges – McFaul restated that it was basic US policy that Washington would not let any other country dictate the US's defensive requirements. "We are going to accept no limitations on that whatsoever because the security of our people, of our allies, is the number-one top priority," he said.

McFaul went on to say a second term by President Barack Obama would include a major effort to engage with Russia, including finding ways to defuse the missile defense issue. "The president believes that this is an issue where we can turn from confrontation to cooperation because we have no interest in building a missile defense system against Russia’s nuclear arsenal," he added.

But in his remarks today to university students in Baku, Azerbaijan, Lavrov focused on the "no limitations" statement to slam McFaul personally.

"Yesterday our colleague – the US ambassador – said very arrogantly that there will be no changes to missile defense even though he, being an ambassador of a foreign state, must understand that the interests of corresponding states must be taken into consideration," Lavrov said.

Experts say they're baffled why McFaul is being singled out like this, especially since the Russian establishment appears appalled at the prospect of Republican president candidate Mitt Romney – who last week declared Russia "our number one geopolitical foe" – winning US elections next November.

"This is probably inertia left over from the Russian presidential election, which did a lot to polarize Russian-American relations in the public mind," says Dmitry Suslov, an expert with the independent Council on Foreign and Defense Policies in Moscow.

"The real targets of all this are Russian opposition leaders and human rights activists, and McFaul is just caught in the crossfire. But it's unfortunate, because McFaul is not only the official representative of the US, he is closely tied to Obama and the policy of 'reset'. So any blow against him means a blow against Obama as well," Mr. Suslov adds.

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