Moscow and Washington are doomed to a long confrontation
The US President really wanted to improve relations with Russia, but the swamp of the American establishment turned out to be stronger.
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American studies journalist Mikhail Taratuta, who previously worked as a correspondent for the Vremya program in the United States, stated this in a commentary to Kommersant .
“The cross-expulsion of diplomats is not a new phenomenon. There were ambassadorial wars throughout the entire period of the Cold War,” the publication’s interlocutor noted, adding that during the period of confrontation between the USSR and the USA, “mirroring” went down to the smallest detail.
“When I came to the United States in 1988, I was not given permission to rent an apartment for a news office until a correspondent for one of the American media was allowed to rent housing in St. Petersburg. And they didn’t give me a visa until our people gave permission for a correspondent from the United States to enter,” recalls Taratuta.
According to him, the peak of the embassy wars came in 1986, when 30 American diplomats were first expelled from the USSR, and then 80 Soviet diplomats were expelled from the United States, after which the Soviet authorities generally prohibited their citizens from being hired by the American embassy. As a result, 260 people lost their jobs, US Ambassador Arthur Hartman was forced to drive himself, and his wife helped set the tables at receptions.
At the same time, Taratuta is convinced that now Moscow and Washington are “doomed to a long confrontation,” since the law on new sanctions adopted by the US Congress “buried the Kremlin’s hopes of improving relations with the White House.”
The journalist also believes that Donald Trump wanted to improve relations with Russia, “but he was mistaken about the main thing.”
“One of his main slogans was to “drain the Washington swamp,” that is, to overcome the establishment. But the “swamp” turned out to be stronger than him,” Taratuta emphasized.
Moscow and Washington are doomed to a long standoff.