The new US ambassador to Moscow presented his credentials to Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, less than a day after the Russian president declared the US “wants to subjugate us” but would never succeed.
Ambassador John Tefft met Putin in a slightly awkward ceremony during which new international envoys showed the president their credentials. Perhaps reflecting the frosty state of affairs between Washington and Moscow, the men said little to each other as they shook hands in a huge gilded hall at the Kremlin. Putin did however offer a typically stern proposal of rapprochement.
“We are ready for practical cooperation with our American partners in different sectors – on the principles of mutual respect for each others’ interests, fairness and non-interference in internal affairs.”
“We proceed from the fact that Russia and the US bear special responsibility for supporting international peace and stability, and for counteracting global challenges and threats.”
Tefft, a career diplomat who has served as envoy to Ukraine and ambassador to Georgia, takes on his new role with US-Russian relations at their worst point since the cold war. Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula in March prompted rounds of sanctions from the US and EU, against major banks, industries and prominent Russians. Tefft’s predecessor, Michael McFaul, left Russia after two years of harassment and ridicule by state media.
Only a day before the new ambassador’s meeting with Putin, the president told a televised forum that Americans “don’t want to humiliate us, they want to subjugate us”.
“They want us to solve their problems at our expense, to bring us under their influence,” he said. “Never in history has anyone succeeded in doing that to Russia, and no one ever will.” The forum, made upof members of the pro-Kremlin Pan-Russian People’s Front, broke into applause.
Putin’s condition that the US not meddle in Russian business carries the suggestion that the west should stay out of Ukrainian matters as well. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov told the BBC that Russia wanted “a 100% guarantee” that Ukraine would not join Nato, the alliance that he said was trying to “break … the balance of power” with Russia.
Military exercises by Nato and Russia have increased in eastern Europe significantly since a post-revolutionary crisis began in Ukraine in January. The US, Nato and European nations accuse Russia of backing separatist rebels, who include Russian nationals and have been seen with Russian military gear. A nominal ceasefire signed in September, mediated by Russia and agreed upon by the Ukrainian government and rebels, has had virtually no effect on fighting.
World leaders such as US president Barack Obama and German chancellor Angela Merkel have made their displeasure known to Putin personally, who maintains that Russia has not interfered in Ukraine. Both Russian and western leaders have accused each other of reverting to “cold war thinking”. Along with Australian prime minister Tony Abbott, Obama and Merkel met Putin with a chilly reception at the G20 summit in Brisbane. Putin left early, asking whether “something switched off in their brains”.
Earlier Tuesday Putin expressed pride in Russian military exercises after he saw an experimental army vehicle called a “polite armored car”, a take on the “polite people” sobriquet of unmarked Russian forces in Crimea. Hearing the vehicle’s nickname, Putin quipped: “You can accomplish a lot more with politeness and weapons than just with courtesy alone.”
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