MOSCOW, May 30 (Itar-Tass World Service)
US Ambassador in Russia Michael McFaul turned out in the focus of another scandal and came under a sharp criticism from the Russian Foreign Ministry “for duplicating some fables in the media space.” At a meeting with the students of the Higher Economics School last week the ambassador accused Moscow that the country “bribed Kyrgyzstan” four years ago and the authorities of the Central Asian republic “ousted” the US contingent from the airbase at the Bishkek airport Manas. Russia voiced its discontent with the statements of the ambassador over the Russian attempts to link the settlement of the Georgian problem with the cooperation on the Iranian nuclear problem.
All these statements did not only increase the publicity of the US ambassador, but also brought about the intentions to deal with the situation over a real vision of Russian-US relations by a person, who calls himself as a professor in public, but not just a diplomat, the Nezavisimaya Gazeta daily reported.
“The statements over Russian-US cooperation go far beyond the diplomatic ethics, but are actually the deliberate distortion of some aspects in Russian-US cooperation,” the newspaper quoted the Russian Foreign Ministry as saying.
“Still learning the craft of speaking more diplomatically,” the US ambassador acknowledged in his Twitter blog. Meanwhile, people, who attended his speeches in Moscow, said that he gave not only criticizing, but also positive assessments on several aspects of Russian-US relations, the Nezavisimaya Gazeta daily noted. Moreover, he showed a generally optimistic vision of the current situation.
Meanwhile, Russia smoothed out its critical remarks over McFaul’s statements on Tuesday. Russian Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov, who is in charge of foreign political issues, stated that US Ambassador McFaul should keep the diplomatic ethics in his public statements and do not hamper the US White House’s efforts to improve cooperation with Russia. “The leadership of both countries is inclined for the most constructive cooperation. The ambassadors should act in this way and not to disharmonize the work of their leadership,” Ushakov said.
The Kommersant daily reported that the US White House refused to give comments on McFaul’s statements over Kyrgyzstan, stating that Barack Obama’s administration still adheres to the policy of rapprochement with Russia. US Department of State Spokesperson Victoria Nuland assumed that Russia interpreted incorrectly McFaul’s statements. She also did not give a direct answer to the question, whether McFaul said that Russia offered a major bribe to Kyrgyzstan.