MOSCOW (AP) – Russia responded on Friday to a wave of new US sanctions, saying it would expel 10 US diplomats and take other retaliatory measures in a tense confrontation with Washington.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry has also released a list of eight current or former US officials banned from entering the country, including U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray, National Intelligence Director Avril Haines and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas .
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also said that Moscow will close those US NGOs that remain in Russia to put an end to what he described as their interference in Russian politics.
The top Russian diplomat said the Kremlin had suggested to US Ambassador John Sullivan to follow the example of his Russian counterpart and head home for consultations. Russia will also deny the US Embassy the opportunity to hire staff from Russia and third countries as support staff, limit visits by short-term US diplomats to the embassy, and tighten requirements for US diplomats to travel to the country.
The others barred from entering Russia are Susan Rice, a former UN ambassador and now head of the Home Affairs Council; John Bolton, who was a national security adviser under former President Donald Trump; James Woolsey, former director of the CIA; and Michael Carvajal, director of the Federal Bureau of Penitentiaries.
On Thursday, the Biden administration announced sanctions against Russia for interfering in the 2020 US presidential election and involvement in the federal agencies’ SolarWind hack – activities denied by Moscow. The United States has ordered the expulsion of 10 Russian diplomats, targeted dozens of companies and individuals, and imposed new limits on Russia’s ability to borrow money.
While the US has the power to paralyze Russia’s economy, Moscow has no leverage to respond in kind, although it could otherwise affect US interests globally.
Lavrov called Washington’s action “absolutely unfriendly and unprovoked” and said that while Russia could take “painful action” against US trade interests in Russia, it would not do so immediately and “save them for future use.”
He warned that if Washington increased the pressure, Russia could ask the United States to reduce the number of embassies and consular staff from about 450 to 300. He said both countries host about 450 diplomats, but that includes about 150 Russians. at the UN in New York that he supported should not be included.
Russia’s economic potential and global coverage are limited compared to the Soviet Union, which competed with the United States for international influence during the Cold War. However, Russia’s nuclear arsenal and its leverage in many parts of the world make it a power that Washington must consider.
Aware of this, President Joe Biden called for a reduction in tensions and kept the door open for cooperation with Russia in certain areas. Biden said he told Putin in Tuesday’s call that he had chosen not to impose tougher sanctions for the time being and proposed meeting in a third country in the summer.
Lavrov said that Russia had a “positive attitude” towards the summit offer and that it was analyzing it, but a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry shortly mentioned that “it was studied in the context of the evolving situation”.
The ministry has accused Russia of wanting to avoid further escalation and engage in a “calm and professional dialogue”, but has other means of retaliating if Washington tries to lift the pressure.
While the new US sanctions further limited Russia’s ability to borrow money by banning US financial institutions from buying Russian government bonds directly from state institutions, they did not target the secondary market.
“It’s very important that there are no sanctions on secondary debt, because that means people outside the US can buy the debt and sell it to people in the US,” said Tom Adshead, director of research at Macro-Advisory Ltd, a consulting firm. .
Timothy Frye, a political scientist at Columbia University, said Biden chose not to target the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline prospect to Germany or to pursue large Russian state-controlled companies.
“This is part of the broader strategy of using sanctions, but also of reaching out to the Kremlin to propose discussions on strategic stability and possibly a summit,” he said.
Tighter restrictions would also affect Western businesses, cause significant economic pain to ordinary Russians, and allow Putin to gather anti-US sentiment to strengthen his dominance.
Rising sanctions could eventually lead Russia into a corner and provoke more reckless action by the Kremlin, leading to a potential escalation in Ukraine, which has seen an escalation of clashes with Russian-backed separatists in the east and an accumulation. mass of Russian troops across the border.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was in Paris on Friday to discuss tensions with French President Emmanuel Macron. Following a joint call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the three urged Russia to withdraw its troops to disqualify the situation.
Fyodor Lukyanov, a top foreign policy expert leading the Moscow Foreign and Defense Policy Council, predicted that Putin would likely accept Biden’s invitation to join next week’s call for climate change, but could pull his feet. on the summit offer.
“There is no way to make transactions,” Lukyanov said. “There is a mutual antipathy and a total lack of trust.”
He said the only practical outcome of the summit could be an agreement to launch lengthy and difficult talks on replacing the new START nuclear reduction agreement that Russia and the US have extended in February for another five years.
Lukyanov noted that growing US pressure will push Russia and China closer in the long run.
“Closer cooperation with China on coordinating US restraint actions will grow faster now because the Chinese are interested in it,” he said. While Russia has no tools for a symmetrical response to US sanctions, “it has ample capacity to stimulate changes in the world order,” he added.
Konstantin Kosachev, the Kremlin-linked deputy speaker of parliament, said that by imposing sanctions and proposing a summit at the same time, the US sought to adopt a commanding position.
“Russia’s consent would be interpreted as a reflection of its desire to ease sanctions, allowing the United States to secure a dominant position at the meeting, while our refusal to meet would be a convenient pretext for more punitive measures,” Kosachev wrote. on Facebook.
He argued that Russia should not rush to accept Biden’s summit offer.
“Revenge is the best cold-served dish,” Kosachev wrote. “I think the saying is quite adaptable to a situation where we are not talking about revenge, but about a proper response to the aggressive action of an opponent.”
Some have predicted that US sanctions could discourage Russia from cooperating with the US in the event of an international crisis.
“Russia’s position will grow more and more on Syria, the Iranian nuclear deal and other issues,” Ivan Timofeev, program director of the Russian International Affairs Council, said in a comment. Instead of acting as a deterrent, he warned, sanctions “will only anger Russia and make its policy even tougher.”
But despite growing tensions, Russia and the United States have shared interests at many global hotspots. For example, Moscow fears that instability could spread from Afghanistan to the former Soviet republics of Central Asia and is interested in a political solution there.
As for Iran, Moscow does not want to see it with nuclear weapons, despite its friendly ties with Tehran.
Lukyanov said Russia would not try to use global hotspots to hurt the United States and would look forward to seeing them erode US domination.
“It’s not a matter of playing spoiler here or there,” he said. “Ongoing developments will help accelerate the process of strengthening leadership powers against US domination.”
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Associated Press writers Eric Tucker in Washington and Kostya Manenkov contributed.