U.S. Ambassador McFaul hopes reset with Russia continues

The new U.S. Ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, told liberal Moscow-based Ekho Moskvy radio that he hopes the “reset” in the Moscow-Washington relations will continue. McFaul said he would like the new Russian president, who is to be elected during the March 4, 2012 vote, to arrive at the NATO summit in Chicago in May. “We need to draft our agenda. We hope there will be a meeting with your next president in Chicago,” McFaul said, speaking in Russian. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who served two presidential terms in 2000-2008 but was barred from standing for a third consecutive term by the Constitution, is considered the most likely candidate to win the March 4 vote. Putin became prime minister after his handpicked successor, Dmitry Medvedev, became president. Putin-led United Russia party won the December 4, 2011 parliamentary elections in Russia but critics claimed the vote had been skewed in favor of United Russia. The authorities admitted that minor violations had occurred during the vote, but denied claims that the irregularities affected the vote’s results. Vote rigging allegations led to the largest anti-government protests for almost two decades in Russia, with demonstrators demanding a rerun and the dismissal of election chief Vladimir Churov. Putin has accused the United States of supporting the recent unrest and said the current secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, had given “a signal” that opposition leaders had acted on. Clinton earlier said the elections were “neither free nor fair.” A recent report on Russian state-run television said the new U.S. ambassador to Russia, McFaul, was seeking to provoke revolution in the country. Camera crews filmed opposition figures arriving at the U.S. embassy to “receive instructions” from McFaul, who later paid visits to the Kremlin and Russian government. The opposition figures’ visit irked the Kremlin, but McFaul sought to allay the Russian authorities concerns, denying any U.S. involvement in opposition rallies in Russia. “That’s not true…People came there because they had something to say, not because the Americans did something…It’s your affairs, not ours,” he said in a live show on Ekho Moskvy. Earlier on Wednesday, Medvedev said McFaul, whose candidacy U.S. President Barack Obama had informally agreed him, should understand that he is working in Russia, not in the United States. The Russian president declined to comment further.