{"id":29283,"date":"2016-12-30T22:25:09","date_gmt":"2016-12-30T22:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=29283"},"modified":"2016-12-31T21:33:48","modified_gmt":"2016-12-31T21:33:48","slug":"putin-wont-retaliate-for-obamas-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=29283","title":{"rendered":"Putin won\u2019t retaliate for Obama\u2019s move"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"us-russia20161230014446\"International desk: In a head-spinning turn of events on Friday, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia announced that he would not retaliate against the United States\u2019 expulsion of Russian diplomats and new sanctions \u2014 hours after his foreign minister recommended doing just that.<\/p>\n

Mr. Putin, apparently betting on improved relations with the next American president, said he would not eject 35 diplomats or close any diplomatic facilities, a proposed tit-for-tat response to actions taken by the Obama administration a day earlier.<\/p>\n

In an announcement on the Kremlin\u2019s website, Mr. Putin said he did not want to deprive children of access to a recreational area on an island in the Moscow River that his foreign minister had recommended closing. He went one step further, inviting all children of American diplomats accredited in Russia to celebrate the New Year and the Russian Orthodox Christmas with him at the Kremlin. (Their parents are presumably welcome; no date was announced.)<\/p>\n

The switch was remarkable, given that the foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, had just made the recommendation in remarks broadcast live nationwide, and given the long history of tit-for-tat expulsions between the two countries. Both the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation have traditionally been sticklers for diplomatic protocol.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the Obama administration declared 35 Russians suspected of being intelligence operatives \u201cpersona non grata\u201d; imposed sanctions on two of Russia\u2019s leading intelligence services; and penalized four top officers of one of those services, the powerful military intelligence unit known as the G.R.U., because of its efforts to influence the presidential election.<\/p>\n

As part of the punishment, the State Department said that it would close two waterfront estates \u2014 one in New York, the other in Maryland \u2014 that it said were used for Russian intelligence activities. It was not clear, however, whether the two properties were a base for the election-related hacking.<\/p>\n

The actions amounted to the strongest American response yet to a state-sponsored cyberattack.<\/p>\n

In retaliation, Mr. Lavrov recommended on Friday that 31 American diplomats be expelled from Moscow and four from St. Petersburg. He also recommended the closing of two facilities: a wooded picnic area on a Moscow island used by diplomats, as well as a warehouse in the southern, industrial part of the Russian capital.<\/p>\n

It was not yet clear if there would be further measures, as the United States took a two-pronged approach involving expulsions as well as sanctions. But they seemed to be a relatively restrained response reflecting the overall mood in the Russian government \u2014 that the Kremlin would wait three weeks for the inauguration of Donald J. Trump and hope that relations might improve.<\/p>\n

United States intelligence agencies have concluded that the G.R.U., with the approval of the Kremlin, ordered the attacks on the Democratic National Committee and other political organizations, and that the Russian government enabled the publication of the emails it obtained to benefit Mr. Trump\u2019s presidential campaign.<\/p>\n

While vowing that Mr. Putin would decide personally how to respond, his spokesman, Dmitry S. Peskov, said, \u201cWe proceed from the premise that these decisions were taken by President Obama, and that in three weeks Donald Trump will be the new head of state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Lavrov, in making his recommendations, said actions like those taken by the United States could not go unanswered.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, we cannot leave such mischievous tricks without a response,\u201d he said. \u201cReciprocity is the law of diplomacy and of international relations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Russian Foreign Ministry denied reports that Moscow was planning to close the Anglo-American School, which is heavily attended by the children of Western diplomats and wealthy Russians.<\/p>\n

In addition to giving 35 Russian diplomats and their families 72 hours to leave the country, the measures announced by President Obama imposed sanctions on Russia\u2019s two main intelligence services. Washington described the diplomats as intelligence agents working under the cover of diplomacy.<\/p>\n

The administration also penalized four top officers from one of the highly secretive services, the G.R.U.<\/p>\n

Previous sanctions by the United States and its Western allies were levied against broad sectors of the Russian economy and also blacklisted dozens of individuals, some of them close friends of Mr. Putin\u2019s who were considered crucial in the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and in destabilizing Ukraine.<\/p>\n

The economic sanctions covered three main areas, including blocking Russian access to international credit, cutting off cooperation in advance oil field technology and stopping arms deals or the sale of dual-use technology.<\/p>\n

Much of their effect stemmed from the fact that they coincided with a sharp drop in global oil prices, hitting Russia with a double blow. Companies had trouble obtaining credit, driving up the short-term cost of borrowing and compounding a deep recession. Over the long run, the effect is likely to be strongest in the oil sector because it dried up most exploration in difficult areas like the Arctic.<\/p>\n

Russia responded with sanctions of its own, mostly banning agricultural products and certain foods imported from the West. Mr. Putin and other officials have repeatedly crowed that this resulted in a successful campaign of \u201cimport substitution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russia also maintained a secret list of Western officials who were no longer allowed into the country. Most, like the former American ambassador Michael McFaul, discovered it only when they applied for visas to Russia.<\/p>\n

Even before the announcement of the latest Russian measures, Maria Zakharova, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, took to Facebook to denounce the Obama administration, although she spared Secretary of State John Kerry the bulk of her criticism.<\/p>\n

Ms. Zakharova called the Obama administration \u201ca group of a foreign policy losers, embittered and narrow-minded.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cToday America, the American people, were humiliated by their own president,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

There was no immediate response from the Obama administration. Elizabeth K. Trudeau, a spokeswoman for the State Department, said by phone from Washington that it was studying Mr. Lavrov\u2019s statement and would respond later.<\/p>\n

There is a long history of reciprocal expulsions and other measures between the United States and Russia, even after the Cold War ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.<\/p>\n

While Mr. Obama framed the new American measures as a response to Russian hacking during the election, the expulsion of Russian diplomats from Washington and San Francisco was described as a response to continued harassment of American diplomats in Russia.<\/p>\n

Mr. Peskov denied that any such harassment takes place, but American diplomats tell a different story. Many travel around Moscow in cars with red diplomatic license plates that start with 004, denoting United States Embassy vehicles. That makes them easy targets for traffic stops.<\/p>\n

Embassy employees said they were tailed as they moved around the city, and that sometimes, when they were not at home, agents would enter and move the furniture around, just to show that they had been there.<\/p>\n

Some find it unnerving, while others shrug it off as part of the job. One young father said he was just grateful that his children were too small to realize that the family was being followed.<\/p>\n

The country house now barred to American diplomats is in Serebryany Bor, a small park located within the city limits and surrounded by the Moscow River. It boasts some of the best beaches in the city.<\/p>\n

The area is popular with Russia\u2019s wealthy elite as well as with ordinary Muscovites, who come to the park in droves in the summer. Serebryany means \u201csilver pine forest.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

International desk: In a head-spinning turn of events on Friday, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia announced that he would not retaliate against the United States\u2019 expulsion of Russian diplomats and new sanctions \u2014 hours after his foreign minister recommended doing just that. Mr. Putin, apparently betting on improved relations with the next American president, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":29284,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[44,14],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n