Negotiations between the US and Russia have for years been characterized by a strange fascination with the Kremlin’s men. American diplomats from all political backgrounds sometimes seem entranced by Moscow’s hardmen, with their well-tailored Western clothing, membership of or proximity to the spy agencies, and casual disdain for the truth.
This is absolutely critical at a time when the two sides are discussing the future of Ukraine, often without any representative from that country or from the European nations that now almost unilaterally finance the Ukrainian war effort.
And while the Trump administration is accused of being played by Moscow — by Putin personally, and by his diplomats — much the same accusation can be levelled at earlier administrations. Who now remembers President Obama’s Russia reset without cringing?
For a long time, Russian diplomats — many of whom began their careers in the Soviet Union — have been treated with respect, even reverence, in the West. Some Western diplomats confessed to these authors that they admired Putin’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, for his experience and unparalleled knowledge of diplomatic treaties.
In 2013, an American profile of Lavrov described him as a veteran diplomat fond of cigars, whiskey, and outfoxing the US. That portrayal might have sounded dubious to an American audience, but it was quite flattering to an old-school Russian diplomat who had always sought to project a macho image.
The article claimed that Lavrov had done his job so effectively that it earned him the nickname Minister Nyet — a nickname originally given to Andrei Gromyko, the Soviet foreign minister known for overusing the USSR’s veto power at the UN. Lavrov, a sincere admirer of Gromyko, must have loved the comparison.
When Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s representative to the UN, suddenly died in 2017, his American counterpart, Samantha Power, called him one of the world’s most effective diplomats. She wrote that he was a masterful storyteller with an epic sense of humor, a good friend, and one of the best hopes the United States and Russia had of working together.
This, remember, was the same Churkin who outright denied any Russian involvement in the downing of flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014, killing 298 people — a crime for which copious and compelling evidence existed.