The rise of anti-Americanism during the Russian presidential campaign came as an unpleasant surprise to the United States but would likely do no damage to long-term bilateral relations, said U.S. Ambassador to Moscow, Michael McFaul.
The White House will counter the hostile rhetoric through “real diplomacy,” McFaul said in an interview to Voice of America radio published late Thursday. He did not elaborate.
“We don’t want a throwback to some kind of ‘Cold War’ and acrimonious rhetoric. We don’t think it serves American interests,” McFaul was cited as saying in the interview, which is only available in Russian translation.
He also said that the media backlash has allowed opponents of U.S. President Barack Obama to question the “reset” in Russian-American relations, which McFaul helped mastermind in 2009, when he was advisor to Obama.
However, Russian officials said in informal talks that they prefer to continue dialogue with the United States, the ambassador said.
McFaul met with leaders of opposition protests in Moscow in January, shortly after arriving to Russia. The meeting prompted pro-government media to accuse the opposition of being funded by the U.S. State Department.
McFaul denied the allegations in his interview, saying that the United States is only sponsoring Russian non-political nongovernment organizations, involved in building the civil society, including ecological groups and independent vote monitors.
Obama plans no major changes to his Russian policy and expects president-elect Vladimir Putin to support the decision, McFaul said. He added that the two presidents intend to meet on American soil in May to discuss bilateral relations.
The United States will continue with their efforts to convince Moscow that U.S. missile defense shield, which is to be deployed in Eastern Europe, poses no threat to Russia, McFaul said.
America will also try to reconcile its position on Syria and Iran with Russia, McFaul said. He admitted considerable differences on both issues but cited successful past compromises, as well as Russia’s support of the U.S. mission in Afghanistan, as reasons for optimism.
McFaul also reiterated his call to cancel the Jackson-Vanik amendment, an American piece of legislation from 1974 that introduced economic sanctions against the Soviet Union.
But McFaul avoided saying whether he supports replacing the Jackson-Vanik amendment with some other legislation targeting Russia over its poor track record on human rights, such as the so-called “Magnitsky list” that proposes to blacklist dozens of Russian officials accused of corruption.
