MOSCOW (AP) – Russia responded to a barrage of new US sanctions on Friday, saying it would expel 10 US diplomats and take other retaliatory measures in a tense showdown with Washington.
The Russian State Department also published a list of eight current or former U.S. officials who are prohibited from entering the country, including U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray, National Intelligence Director Avril Haines, and Secretary of the Interior. Security Alejandro Mayorkas.
Secretary of State Sergey Lavrov also said Moscow will step to shut down US non-governmental organizations that remain in Russia to end what he described as their interference in Russian politics.
The top Russian diplomat said the Kremlin suggested that US Ambassador John Sullivan follow the lead of his Russian counterpart and go home for consultations. Russia will also deny the US Embassy the ability to hire personnel from Russia and third countries as support personnel, limit visits by US diplomats who are required to spend short periods at the embassy, and tighten the requirements for US diplomats to travel in the country.
The others banned from entering Russia are Susan Rice, a former UN ambassador and now head of the Internal Policy 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.
On Thursday, the Biden administration announced sanctions against Russia for meddling in the 2020 US presidential election and involvement in the SolarWind hack of federal agencies – activities that Moscow has denied. The US ordered the ousting of 10 Russian diplomats, targeted dozens of businesses and people, and imposed new restrictions on Russia’s ability to borrow money.
While the US has the power to paralyze the Russian economy, Moscow lacks levers to respond in the same way, although it could harm US interests worldwide in other ways.
Lavrov called Washington’s action “ absolutely unkind and unprovoked, ” and said that while Russia could take “ painful measures ” against U.S. business interests in Russia, it would not immediately proceed to do so and “ keep them. for future reference ‘.
He warned that if Washington continues to step up the pressure, Russia could ask the US to reduce the number of embassy and consular employees from about 450 to 300. He said both countries are home to about 450 diplomats, but that also includes about 150 Russians at the UN in New York that he felt was not included.
Russia’s economic potential and global reach are limited compared to the Soviet Union which competed with the US for international influence during the Cold War. Still, Russia’s nuclear arsenal and its influence in many parts of the world make it a force for Washington to reckon with.
Realizing this, President Joe Biden called for de-escalating tensions and kept the door open for cooperation with Russia in certain areas. Biden said he had told Putin in the call on Tuesday that he chose not to impose tougher sanctions for the time being and suggested meeting in a third country in the summer.
Lavrov said Russia had a “positive attitude” to the summit’s offer and analyzed it, but a State Department statement shortly thereafter noted that it was “being studied in the context of the changing situation.”
The ministry has accused Russia of avoiding further escalation and engaging in a “ calm and professional dialogue, ” but has other means of retaliation if Washington tries to increase the pressure.
While the new US sanctions further limited Russia’s ability to borrow money by prohibiting 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 that non-US persons can buy and sell the debt to US persons,” said Tom Adshead, director of research at Macro-Advisory Ltd, an analytics and advisory company.
Timothy Frye, a political scientist at Columbia University, noted that Biden chose not to target the future Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline to Germany or pursue major Russian state-owned companies.
“That’s part of the broader strategy to use sanctions, but also to contact the Kremlin to propose talks on strategic stability and ultimately a summit,” he said.
Tighter restrictions would also hurt Western companies, cause ordinary Russians significant economic pain, and allow Putin to muster anti-American sentiments to bolster his rule.
Increasing sanctions could eventually corner Russia and provoke even more reckless actions by the Kremlin, leading to a possible escalation in Ukraine, which has sparked a wave of clashes with Russia-backed separatists in the east and a massive Russian troop build-up across the border. .
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was in Paris on Friday to discuss tensions with French President Emmanuel Macron. After a joint appeal with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the three urged Russia to withdraw its forces to de-escalate the situation.
Fyodor Lukyanov, a top foreign policy expert who heads the Moscow-based Foreign and Defense Policy Council, predicted that Putin would likely accept Biden’s invitation to join next week’s call on climate change, but he would drag his feet on the offering from the top.
“There is no way to make deals,” Lukyanov said. “There is a mutual dislike and a total lack of trust.”
He said the only practical outcome of the summit could be an agreement to start long and difficult talks on a replacement for the New START nuclear reduction agreement that Russia and the US extended for another five years in February.
Lukyanov noted that the increasing pressure from the US will push Russia and China closer in the long run.
“Closer cooperation with China in coordinating actions to contain the United States will now develop more rapidly as the Chinese are interested in it,” he said. While Russia has no tools for a symmetrical response to US sanctions, “it has ample scope to drive change in the world order,” he added.
Konstantin Kosachev, the Kremlin-affiliated deputy speaker of the upper house of parliament, said that by imposing sanctions and proposing a summit at the same time, the US wanted to take an impressive position.
“Russia’s agreement would be interpreted as reflecting its desire to soften the sanctions, allowing the US to gain a dominant position at the meeting, while our refusal to meet would be a useful pretext for more punitive action,” he wrote. Kosachev on Facebook.
He argued that Russia should not rush to accept Biden’s offer at the summit.
“Revenge is a dish that is best served cold,” Kosachev wrote. “I believe the saying adapts very well to a situation where we are not talking about revenge, but an appropriate response to aggressive action by an opponent.”
Some predicted that the US sanctions could discourage Russia from cooperating with the US in international crises.
“Russia’s position on Syria, the Iranian nuclear deal and other issues will become more difficult,” Ivan Timofeev, program director at Russia’s International Affairs Council, said in a comment. Rather than deter, he warned, the sanctions would only “anger Russia and make its policies even tougher.”
But despite mounting tensions, Russia and the US have shared interests in many global hotspots. Moscow, for example, fears that instability could spread from Afghanistan to former Soviet republics in Central Asia and is interested in a political settlement there.
As for Iran, Moscow doesn’t want to see it with nuclear weapons either, despite its friendly ties with Tehran.
Lukyanov said Russia would not try to use global hotspots to hurt the US and wait patiently to see how they affect US rule.
“It’s not a matter of playing the spoiler here or there,” he said. “The ongoing developments will help accelerate the process of consolidating leadership against US rule.”
Associated Press writers Eric Tucker in Washington and Kostya Manenkov contributed.