Lynn Tracy, the US ambassador to Russia, expects Moscow to pay a “high price” for the ongoing war in Ukraine. “Western sanctions have caused billions of dollars in damage to the Russian financial sector,” he said in an interview with Russian newspaper Kommersant. According to Tracy, Russia’s future is bright, especially now that bilateral relations with the West are at an “all-time low.”
The US ambassador is calling Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a major “miscalculation” that has worsened Moscow’s cooperation and security prospects. “The Russians clearly expected the Ukrainians to welcome the troops, but apparently they didn’t. Instead, the Ukrainian people resisted,” Tracy said in an interview with Kommersant. “This protest is not a form of propaganda, Ukrainians genuinely want to defend their country.”
Russia, on the other hand, will come out of the conflict much worse, Tracy predicts. The large-scale war, now entering its second year, has “severely weakened” the country. “Russians are forced to pay a high price that will only increase in the long run. For example, sanctions and export restrictions have damaged billions of dollars in the Russian financial sector and seriously slowed the country’s technological progress,” the ambassador said.
Russia seems to have returned to the past, to repression.
“NATO is getting stronger”
Also, bilateral relations with the West are at a low level. Several high-ranking Russian figures, including Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, have repeatedly stated that the United States and other NATO allies are Russia’s enemies. But according to Tracy, this obsession with revenge only ensures that NATO continues to isolate itself. “Ukrainians are now even more determined to join the alliance,” he says. “Not only Ukraine, but Finland and Sweden have been neutral for a long time.”
see NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg: “NATO is ready for Ukraine”
The ambassador insists that the United States “does not consider the Russians an enemy.” “The US-Russia relationship is currently at the lowest point we can remember (…). Russia seems to have returned to the past, to repressive times,” Tracy said. While there is a lot of talk about “Russophobia” and the destruction of Russia, that is not on the West’s mind. He says. “We are in conflict with the Russian government, but not with the people.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has already slammed Tracy. “The Russian people are being slaughtered by American money and American weapons,” he told Telegram.
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