Russia should not close the US embassy despite the crisis caused by the war in Ukraine, because the two largest nuclear powers in the world must continue to talk, said the US ambassador to Moscow. President Vladimir Putin has described the invasion of Ukraine as a turning point in Russian history: a revolt against the hegemony of the United States, which the Kremlin leader said humiliated Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Ukraine and its Western supporters say it is fighting for survival against the reckless seizure of land in the imperial style, which killed thousands of people, displaced more than 10 million people and turned vast parts of the country into a wasteland. In a clear attempt to send a message to the Kremlin, John J. Sullivan, the US ambassador appointed by President Donald Trump, told Russia’s state news agency TASS that Washington and Moscow should not simply sever diplomatic relations. “We must keep the opportunity to talk to each other,” Sullivan told TASS. He warned that Leo Tolstoy’s works should not be removed from Western bookstores or Tchaikovsky’s music should not be released. Despite crises, spy scandals and Cold War strife and relations between Moscow and Washington have not broken down since the United States established diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union in 1933, according to Reuters.
But now Russia says its post-Soviet relationship with the West is over and will turn east. Last month, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken joked that he would like to dedicate Taylor Swift’s song “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” to Putin. Asked about this remark, Sullivan said: “We will also never part forever.” Asked by TASS if the analogy meant the embassies could be closed, Sullivan said: “Maybe – there is such a possibility, although I think it would be a big mistake.” “I understand that the Russian government has mentioned the option of severing diplomatic relations,” he said. The refusal of Empress Catherine the Great to support the British Empire when America declared independence laid the groundwork for the first diplomatic contacts between the United States and St. Petersburg, then Russia’s imperial capital.
After the Bolshevik Revolution in October 1917, President Woodrow Wilson refused to recognize the revolutionary government of Vladimir Lenin and the US Embassy was closed in 1919. Relations were not restored until 1933. “The only reason I remember the United States can to be forced to close their embassy is if it becomes dangerous to continue its work, “Sullivan said. Asked how the relationship would develop, Sullivan, a 62-year-old lawyer, said he did not know, but added that he hoped for a rapprochement one day. “If I have to bet, I’d say maybe not in my life.”
