Russia’s war against Ukraine “has propelled US-Russia relations to the depths,” US Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan told reporters. CNN On thursday. While he didn’t say the relationship between Washington and Moscow was at its lowest point, Sullivan noted that it was “as bad as it gets.”
“U.S.-Russia relations were bad when I arrived here in January 2020” and “they have only gotten worse, gone down since then,” he said.
In an interview with Alisyn Camerota on CNN Newsroom, Sullivan, from Moscow, said there is “very little involvement with the Russian government”, and his communications focused on the detained US citizens and “the functioning of our embassy”, which is under strong restrictions imposed by the Russian government.
On Wednesday, American Trevor Reed was released from Russian custody in a prisoner exchange – a major operation in which Sullivan was a key player. However, other Americans remain in detention, including Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan, the latter of whom asked why he was “left behind”.
“Why was I left behind? While I am pleased that Trevor is home with his family, I have been detained on a fictitious spy charge for 40 months,” Whelan said in a statement addressed to parents and shared with CNN. “The world knows this accusation was fabricated. Why wasn’t more done to secure my release?”
Sullivan told CNN he “couldn’t agree more with Whelan that he was convicted on a fabricated charge.” “I have been advocating his release publicly in negotiations with the Russian government since before I arrived here as ambassador, when I was deputy secretary of state when Paul was originally arrested in December 2018,” he said.
“I never gave in to my defense of Paul in involvement with the Russian government, for Paul’s release,” Sullivan added, noting that Trevor’s case is just one step.
On the Russian war in Ukraine, Sullivan suggested that it is up to one man – Russian President Vladimir Putin – to end the brutal conflict. “This war started with a decision by President Putin; this war will end with a decision by the president,” he said, adding that the United States “will do everything it can to ensure that this decision is a strategic defeat for him and his government, not a victory for him in Ukraine,” he added. .
The US ambassador said rhetoric about Russia’s potential use of nuclear weapons has increased in “a dramatically irresponsible way recently”, but noted that it “is not new”.
He recalled that in past conversations with the Russian government related to Ukraine issues, the discussion would start normally and then change to warnings about nuclear confrontation if the US and NATO continued to support Ukraine.
“And my reaction across the table is one of amazement,” Sullivan said. “And unfortunately, what we’ve seen more recently, is at the highest levels of the US government, an escalation of that rhetoric.”
Sullivan said the US scaled back the response, noting that US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin took a break and then canceled a missile test despite pre-planning and notifying the Russian government.
“We don’t engage in irresponsible rhetoric about nuclear weapons,” he told CNN. The US is “prepared to prevent nuclear aggression against the United States. We will not succumb to nuclear blackmail, but we will not tolerate nuclear saber noise and nuclear violence,” he said.
Source: CNN Brasil
I’m James Harper, a highly experienced and accomplished news writer for World Stock Market. I have been writing in the Politics section of the website for over five years, providing readers with up-to-date and insightful information about current events in politics. My work is widely read and respected by many industry professionals as well as laymen.
