Kremlin plays down resignation as it looks forward to Tillerson
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THE Kremlin played down the resignation of US National Security Adviser Michael Flynn yesterday, a sign Russia is already looking ahead to talks with the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to improve the two nations’ strained ties.
Flynn was often perceived as Donald Trump’s key contact with Moscow. In 2015, he was paid to attend a gala dinner for Russia Today, a Kremlin-funded television station, and even sat next to Russian President Vladimir Putin during the event.
Flynn resigned on Monday night after conceding that he gave “incomplete information” about his calls with Russia’s ambassador Sergey Kislyak to US officials.
The Russian establishment has not harbored any illusions about the Trump administration’s pro-Russia stance for some time now, Alexei Makarkin, of the Moscow-based Center for Political Technologies, said.
“This infatuation with Trump in Russia is over, and Flynn as a person who has contributed to this infatuation stopped being perceived as a figure who can have a real impact on the US foreign policy,” Makarkin said.
The nomination of Tillerson, former chief executive at ExxonMobil, showed to the Russians that it would be him, not Flynn, who would be doing the negotiating, Makarkin said.
Ties between Moscow and Washington plummeted to post-Cold War lows after Russia annexed Crimea. The US responded with sanctions and visa bans.
Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on Flynn’s resignation.
Asked if Moscow still hopes relations with the US to improve, he said it is “too early to say” since “Trump’s team has not been shaped yet.”
The Kremlin earlier said it was not expecting a breakthrough before the two presidents meet in person. Putin has suggested, however, that could take place in Slovenia, home nation of Trump’s wife Melania.
Russia’s visibly muted reaction to Flynn’s departure comes one day before Tillerson holds his first meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Tillerson, who has sealed multiple deals in Russia and was even decorated with the Russian “Order of Friendship” award, is widely described as a tough negotiator who will not give Russia promises he cannot keep.
Several senior Russian lawmakers took their disappointment over Flynn’s resignation out on social media. By yesterday afternoon, however, some began to retract their original indignant comments.
Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the foreign affairs committee at the State Duma, two hours after he described Flynn’s departure as a “negative signal” for Russia-US relations, switched to more moderate language, stressing that it “cannot fundamentally influence Russia-US ties.”
Fyodor Lukyanov, chairman of the Council for Foreign and Defense Policies, a group of foreign policy experts, told the RIA Novosti news agency it was not clear whether Flynn’s resignation could influence bilateral ties.
“There’s nothing to influence yet, there are no relations as such. Our countries have relations shaped by the former administration, which were awful, and Trump was going to change that,” he said.
Yet Trump’s first phone call with Putin last month demonstrated he did not really have anything to offer to Russia immediately, he said. “It has led to a realization that if Flynn wanted to promote better ties with Russia, he would not have the real chance to.”
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