Russia Ties Sunk To "Mariana Trench" Depths: US Envoy On "Hostile" Moscow
NDTV
US-Russian ties already were at their post-Cold War iciest when former US President Donald Trump tapped Sullivan for one of the most difficult jobs in US diplomacy.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has made John Sullivan's tough job as US envoy to Moscow even harder as he grapples with the Kremlin's nuclear saber-rattling and threats to sever relations while keeping his embassy running on one-tenth the normal staff.
"It was really bad two and a half years ago," Sullivan remembered of his arrival in Jan. 2020. "It's gotten worse."
Severe staff cuts imposed by Russia's government have not yet forced him to clean embassy toilets or buff floors, as rumored in Washington, though he said he knows how to do both.
The loquacious grandson of Irish immigrants expounded this week in an interview about being Washington's man in Moscow five weeks into a war in which U.S.-supplied arms are killing his host nation's troops and sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies are devastating Russia's economy.
