The State Department announced yesterday that Russian President Vladimir Putin has informed the United States he will not permit any further activities by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in the Russian Federation. State officials tried to put the best face on this humiliating rejection, saying they are “extremely …
Last week, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced that Russia would deploy short-range missiles and possibly withdraw from the New Strategic Arms Reductions Treaty (New START) if the United States moves forward with its plans for a missile-defense system in Europe. Russian threats are yet another indicator that the “reset” in …
On Tuesday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee postponed the planned nomination vote for Michael McFaul as the next ambassador to the Russian Federation by request from GOP Senators. This is a common practice when Senators have concerns that they want the executive branch to address. Foreign Policy says that this …
The U.S. State Department appears to be preempting and diluting the Senate’s Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2011 (S. 1039) by placing some Russian officials on a visa blacklist. Last week, the State Department placed some 64 Russian officials on a visa blacklist that would prevent them …