The appointment of Michael McFaul as the new US ambassador to Moscow has fueled fresh tensions between Washington and Moscow. The Kremlin fears that through McFaul the White House is signaling its intention of exploiting political instability in Russia by fostering opposition elements.
McFaul, who has served as an adviser to President Obama on Russia and Central Asia since May 2011, is a former Stanford professor and fellow at the Hoover Institute. While regarded as the “architect” of the Obama administration’s reset policy aimed ostensibly at easing tensions with Russia, McFaul is an expert on the so-called color revolutions carried out with US backing in the territory of the former Soviet Union........
McFaul has close personal ties with several opposition leaders, among them the leader of Parnas, Boris Nemtsov, since the 1990s. In mid-January, along with US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, he met with oppositionists and human rights activists to discuss the state of “civil society” in Russia and express US support.
The Russian state media launched a campaign against the new ambassador only two days after his arrival in Moscow. The New York Times commented on January 24 that the honeymoon of a newly appointed ambassador had rarely been so short.
Shortly after his meeting with the opposition, Russian Channel One proclaimed that the new ambassador had been sent to Moscow to foster a revolution. Andrey Izayev, a deputy of the ruling party United Russia, called McFaul a “specialist in Orange Revolutions.” The government’s youth movement “Nashi” also sharply attacked the US ambassador for his meeting with the opposition.
In an interview with the liberal daily Kommersant’, McFaul emphasized that, in his view, the reset was not only about improving bilateral relations with the Kremlin, but about deepening the ties to “the opposition, businessmen, and artists” in Russia. He rejected the claim that the US has financed Alexei Navalny, the fervently nationalist anti-corruption blogger who has become a centerpiece of anti-government demonstrations, while observing that “the 21st century will belong to those who will be capable of using clever people for their purposes.”
As “priorities” for his diplomatic work, he first identified the conflict over the US missile defense system in Europe, which has been a contentious issue between Russia and NATO for years.......
Second, McFaul pointed out the conflict over Syria and Iran as a pivotal focus of his work. “We need to stop the bloodshed in Syria; we mustn’t just stand by and watch. We have to work on this together with Russia and other major powers. And we have to deal prudently with the situation in Iran. In this respect, we have achieved significant progress, but this year will be decisive for finding a solution to this question. The US and Russia have to stand on the same side in this,” he said.........
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has repeatedly condemned the tougher UN sanctions against Syria. The Kremlin maintains close economic and military ties to the Assad regime. In January, Russia pointedly signed a $550 million deal with Syria to provide 36 Russian fighter planes.
Lavrov also opposed the EU oil embargo against Iran, calling it an “attempt to strangle a whole sector of the Iranian economy.” A military strike against Iran would be “a catastrophe,” Lavrov said recently.
In December, the Russian liberal newspaper Nezavisimaia Gazeta reported that the Kremlin was expecting a US-backed military strike by Israel against an Iranian nuclear facility in the near future........
The newspaper, moreover, cited the military expert General Vladimir Popov, who said that a military engagement by Russia in the conflict was possible, if Iran came close to military collapse due to the actions of the US.