Russia Recalls Its Ambassador to the U.S. for Consultations Moscow’s move follows a critical U.S. intelligence report about Russian efforts to interfere in the 2020 presidential election
https://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-recalls-its-ambassador-to-the-u-s-for-consultations-11616011568
By Jessica Donati and Ann M. Simmons
The Russian ambassador to the U.S. has been summoned to Moscow for consultations, a Russian foreign ministry spokesman said, as the Kremlin determines the next steps in relations with the U.S. under the Biden administration.
The announcement that Anatoly Antonov had been summoned to Moscow came a day after a U.S. intelligence report for the first time directly accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of ordering a wide-ranging influence operation to interfere in the 2020 U.S. election, intending to hurt President Biden’s campaign.
U.S. intelligence agencies previously have said Moscow tried to interfere in the 2016 election and that it was doing so again last year but hadn’t explicitly linked Mr. Putin to allegations of 2020 meddling. Russian officials have repeatedly denied any effort to influence the outcome of U.S. elections.
A statement by the Russian foreign ministry said the most important thing for Moscow was to identify ways to rectify the relationship, blaming Washington for bringing relations between the two countries to “a blind alley.”
Mr. Antonov was appointed as Russia’s top envoy in Washington in August 2017. He was previously the deputy foreign minister responsible for military and political security. In a YouTube interview last month, he said that Russia wanted U.S. foreign policy to be more predictable.
U.S. Intelligence Assessment
“All we want is predictability, confidence in future, confidence in the United States’ actions,” the senior diplomat told the “Solovyov Live” channel. “All I can see for the foreseeable future is that pressure on us will be continued,” he added.
Relations between Russia and the West have deteriorated in recent years. Washington has repeatedly accused Moscow of election interference, cyber hacks and human rights violations. The European Union and the U.K. have levied similar accusations and coordinated on responses.
Earlier this month, the Biden administration earlier imposed sanctions against Russia for trying to assassinate opposition leader Alexei Navalny by poisoning him. It was the first time Washington formally accused the Kremlin of trying to kill Mr. Navalny, a charge Moscow vehemently denies.
The EU announced sanctions targeting Russian entities and officials over the poisoning in coordination with Washington.
The EU and U.K. had already concluded last year that Russian security was behind the poisoning. Russia said it would expel diplomats from Sweden, Poland and Germany last month for taking part in what authorities say were unlawful rallies in support of Mr. Navalny. He was sentenced last month to spend around 2½ years behind bars for violating his parole.
The Biden administration has said it is reviewing further measures in response to Moscow’s alleged offer of bounties for attacks on U.S. troops in Afghanistan and the massive SolarWinds hack, a suspected Russian espionage operation targeting U.S. government agencies and private businesses
White House press secretary Jen Psaki declined to comment on the decision to recall the ambassador but said the U.S. would be “straightforward” and “direct” when relaying concerns to Russia. Ms. Psaki said there were still areas where the U.S. and Russia could work together.
The U.S. and Russia are engaged in geopolitical struggles around the world, backing opposing forces in places such as Afghanistan, Syria and Venezuela.
The U.S. intelligence report released Tuesday was published by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. It said Mr. Putin authorized a range of intelligence operations intended to support former President Donald Trump’s re-election.
It found that Russia’s operations were conducted on a larger scale than those by other nations with whom the U.S. has an adversarial relationship, including Iran, which the report said sought to harm Mr. Trump’s re-election, and China, which largely refrained from attempting electoral influence. Despite the reported interference efforts, the agency found no evidence that Moscow successfully tampered with election infrastructure, such as voter registration systems or ballots.
Mr. Trump repeatedly has played down or outright rejected the intelligence community’s views that Russia sought to help him in 2016. However, the Trump administration issued various rounds of sanctions targeting Russian officials and entities for interfering in the election and waging cyberattacks on U.S. infrastructure.
In addition to sanctions, the U.S. and the EU have expelled Russian diplomats in the past in response to what they describe as malign activity by Moscow.
In 2018, the U.S. and Europe expelled more than 130 Russian diplomats for the attempt to murder Sergei Skripal and his daughter with a military-grade nerve agent in the U.K. Moscow responded by expelling U.S. and European diplomats and closing the U.S. consulate general in St. Petersburg.
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