American political elites are on the same page in terms of seeking to hurt Russia, Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov has said. The people who are in charge in Washington simply cannot acknowledge that their attempts are not working, he argued in an interview with TASS published on Wednesday.
The senior diplomat was discussing the challenges of working in an environment of hostility that the two nations have not experienced in decades, as well as the embassy’s plans for 2024. His analysis of US goals were at the core of his argument that – despite a temporary rift between Democrats and Republicans over aid for Ukraine on Capitol Hill – Washington’s overall strategy will not change.
“The Russophobes have tried pretty much everything: multibillion dollar funding, direct arms supplies. They spent colossal amounts of money and got no results,” Antonov said, referring to Washington’s support of Kiev.
Since Ukraine has failed to beat Russia, the White House is now selling continued funding with a framing that might appeal domestically, the ambassador noted. This narrative claims that 90% of the funds skated for Kiev actually go into the US economy through defense contractors, describing the spending as a “good investment.”
“This verbal acrobatics only serves as evidence of the lack of understanding of what is happening in the world, which is the gradual breakdown of the US-centric order,” he suggested. “This is why hawks here learn no lessons” from Ukrainian military failures and drag their allies “into the pit that they dug themselves into in the past.”
The current state of bilateral relations allows the Russian embassy in the US to merely prevent their full collapse, Antonov said. But it has regular engagements with diplomatic staff representing friendly and neutral nations in the US capital, he noted.
“Our partners demonstrate understanding of the background and causes [of the Russian conflict with Ukraine]. They realize that Western fury comes from the fact that Russia has not only stopped NATO’s eastward expansion, but has reversed the process,” he said.
People in power in the US want to save the world order, “which benefits them and harms others,” but antagonizing Russia does not serve the interests of the peoples of the two nations or the rest of the world, Antonov argued. Fuelling Russophobia simply allows American elites to avoid accountability for their policy failures, he claimed.