An Artful Dodger

It was quite a performance. It often is with top Russian officials.

We had a Council on Foreign Relations Zoom discussion with Russia’s Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Ryabkov today. He expressed concern that the U.S. has labeled Russia a “strategic competitor.” Imagine that? Russia is better considered a “major adversary” as far as most of us are concerned. Too bad, since the Russian people are terrific and deserve much better than Vladimir Putin as their leader.

He lamented the economic sanctions the international community placed on Moscow but, of course, he failed to state the reason why sanctions were imposed in the first place. “The answer is always sanctions,” he said, “and then more sanctions.” Too bad, Minister Ryabkov, that you chose not to mention that it was Russia’s unwarranted and illegal decision to invade and occupy the territory (Crimea, Donbas) of another nation (Ukraine) that triggered the sanctions. Remember the “little green men” in the Donbas? Well, they are still there. They make our unidentified, unmarked “little green men” guarding the Lincoln Memorial blush.

Ryabkov claimed that the U.S. is a “world hegemon,” which makes one’s heart flutter in its evocation of Cold War days. Naturally, any claim of U.S. global hegemony is absurd at a moment when this nation has exited the world stage and surrendered its global standing and political leverage.

Ryabkov lamented “anti-Russia concerns in the American mainstream” without, of course, referencing why those concerns exist. Mr. Minister, your nation unequivocally and demonstrably meddled in and corrupted the 2016 U.S. election. There is simply no question about it. And you're doing so again, right now. Your nation’s goal was to elect to the U.S. Presidency an utter fool – a “useful idiot” as Russian intelligence operatives phrase it – who has at every turn advanced Putin’s agenda, wittingly or not.

Your performance was an artful fan dance, Mr. Minister. Too bad that it simply doesn't work with anyone who's paying attention.  
Image courtesy of the Moscow Times.