Paul
Goble
Staunton, February 2 – Talks between
representatives of two governments are often not about what the participants
say they are and sometimes not even important for what was really discussed.
Instead, it is the fact of the talks and the way in which one or the other side
presents them that are what really matters.
That certainly appears to be the
case with the visit by three senior Russian security officials, including two
under sanctions, to Washington, a visit that the sides say was focused on
cooperation in the struggle against terrorism but that many in the United
States was about much more besides.
However that turns out to be – and
however inappropriate one may believe that any such meeting is – the reaction
of the Russian media suggests that the Russians got precisely what they wanted:
an official US government declaration that sanctions can be lifted “in the
interests of national security.”
Responding to criticism that
Washington had allowed in two officials under sanction, the State Department
said that “in the interests of national security, US sanctions against Russia
may be lifted,” a declaration that the Russian media have focused on today in
ways that suggest Moscow wanted to use the meeting as a way to force Washington
to remind everyone of that.
(For Russian coverage focusing on that statement, see among others
snob.ru/selected/entry/133955,
novayagazeta.ru/news/2018/02/02/139148-gosdep-vlasti-ssha-mogut-vremenno-priostanvalivat-deystvie-sanktsiy-v-interesah-nationalnoy-bezopasnosti,
medusa.io/news/2018/02/02/gosdep-o-visite-naryshkina-v-ssha-v-interesah-natsionalnoy-bezopasnosti-sanktsii-mozhno-priostanovit
and
spektr.press/news/2018/02/02/gosdep-ssha-obyasnil-priostanovku-sankcij-protiv-glav-specsluzhb-rf/.)
Few binding Congressional actions
regarding foreign affairs are passed, however large the majorities in either or
both houses, without what is typically referred to as a national security
waiver, a grant to the president of the right to suspend the provisions of these
actions in the name of national security.
President Trump has clearly decided
not to follow through on the intent of the August 2, 2017, personal sanctions
act: His administration has provided a list of sorts of Russian officials who
might be subject to such sanctions, but he has not imposed any new sanctions on
them or others since the measure was passed.
The Kremlin is clearly counting on
him to continue that course, and the meeting of the Russian security chiefs with
their American counterparts in Washington was yet another clever move to remind
everyone -- including officials in the American capital -- that in the name of “national
security,” the president can ignore most Congressional actions.
Vladimir Putin is certainly hopeful that Trump may use that justification to lift not just sanctions on two senior intelligence officers but on other US sanctions more generally.
