John Sullivan, ambassador of United States in Russia he will fly to Washington for consultations. “I think it is very important for me at this moment to discuss directly with my new colleagues in the Biden administration on the current state of bilateral relations between the United States and Russia,” said the ambassador who in order to dampen the evident tension between the two states added, “I have also not seen my family for over a year and this is an equally important reason to go home. But I will return to Moscow in the next few weeks and in any case before any meeting between the president Joe Biden and the president Vladimir Putin”.
Sullivan’s trip home was also hoped for by Moscow, which several times in recent days had advised him to return “to base” for consultations.
In the meantime, although Biden is pressing to organize a meeting with the Russian president, Putin has already said no: it is very complex now to meet and it would certainly be “impossible” in the coming weeks.
The situation between Russia e Usa she is particularly tense in this period. The movement of Russian soldiers to the western border area to test new weapons, the new bilateral sanctions and the case of Alexei Navalny have only increased the tension.
The traveling ambassadors game doesn’t start with Sullivan. Putin, in fact, had called back Anatoly Antonov, Russian ambassador a Washington, after being accused of interfering in the 2020 election, being called a ‘killer’ by Biden and being covertly threatened with paying a high price for his behavior. All last March.
With regard to the alleged interference in the 2020 elections, the US administration last week expelled ten Russian diplomats accusing them of having played a role in the incident of the hacking of the SolarWinds supply chain.
The reaction of Moscow which in turn expelled 10 US diplomats and targeted US embassy operations, also recommending that the ambassador leave the country. Which happened on time. Even if with the excuse of consultations and without a formal expulsion.
In any case, the consultations ambassadors with their presidents and governments of reference is a normal thing when a strong climate of tension like the current one between the US and Russia is created.