Unbreakable
Bluelighter
Moscow announced that it has terminated an agreement with Washington to cooperate in law and drug enforcement, continuing the trend of deteriorating diplomatic relations.
“Russia is reforming its relationship with the US. We have terminated the third agreement with the U.S. in the last six months,” Aleksey Pushkov, the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Russian Lower House, commented on Twitter.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed an order to terminate the bilateral deal, the government said in a statement on its official website on Wednesday. The agreement, formalized between Russia and the US on September 25, 2002, was declared “out of touch with today’s realities and has exhausted its potential,” the statement read.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has been instructed to notify Washington of the decision.
As part of the now-defunct bilateral deal, the US agreed to provide financial assistance to relevant Russian entities for anti-crime measures, among other activities. Such philanthropy, however, has raised eyebrows in Russia and prompted questions over the real motive behind Washington’s efforts.
It was largely due to these suspicions that Moscow informed the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in September that its services in Russia were no longer wanted or needed.
In a recent interview with NPR, outgoing US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton commented on Russia’s decision to shut down the USAID office: “We can take our aid money and go elsewhere and help people who welcome us.”
Clinton’s comment goes far towards explaining the rift in Russia-US relations: Russia has largely escaped from the clutches of its post-Soviet depression, and is now has a dynamic economy with a growing middle class and huge natural resources, which no longer needs handouts from Washington.
The Foreign Ministry said that Russian civil society has become fully mature, and did not need any "external direction" from USAID, which was also blamed for attempting to manipulate Russia’s internal political processes.
Is Washington, feeling a bit like a jaded partner in a tumultuous relationship, seeking to break off the honeymoon in dramatic fashion?
Last year, the decision by a group of US legislators to implement the so-called ‘Magnitsky Act’ against specific Russian officials – who the US Senators believe should be held accountable in the death of Sergey Magnitsky, an accountant with Hermitage Capital who died in prison in 2009 amidst a tax evasion investigation – has triggered a diplomatic domino effect between the two countries.
Source:
http://rt.com/politics/russia-us-moscow-medvedev-clinton-071/
“Russia is reforming its relationship with the US. We have terminated the third agreement with the U.S. in the last six months,” Aleksey Pushkov, the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Russian Lower House, commented on Twitter.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed an order to terminate the bilateral deal, the government said in a statement on its official website on Wednesday. The agreement, formalized between Russia and the US on September 25, 2002, was declared “out of touch with today’s realities and has exhausted its potential,” the statement read.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has been instructed to notify Washington of the decision.
As part of the now-defunct bilateral deal, the US agreed to provide financial assistance to relevant Russian entities for anti-crime measures, among other activities. Such philanthropy, however, has raised eyebrows in Russia and prompted questions over the real motive behind Washington’s efforts.
It was largely due to these suspicions that Moscow informed the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in September that its services in Russia were no longer wanted or needed.
In a recent interview with NPR, outgoing US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton commented on Russia’s decision to shut down the USAID office: “We can take our aid money and go elsewhere and help people who welcome us.”
Clinton’s comment goes far towards explaining the rift in Russia-US relations: Russia has largely escaped from the clutches of its post-Soviet depression, and is now has a dynamic economy with a growing middle class and huge natural resources, which no longer needs handouts from Washington.
The Foreign Ministry said that Russian civil society has become fully mature, and did not need any "external direction" from USAID, which was also blamed for attempting to manipulate Russia’s internal political processes.
Is Washington, feeling a bit like a jaded partner in a tumultuous relationship, seeking to break off the honeymoon in dramatic fashion?
Last year, the decision by a group of US legislators to implement the so-called ‘Magnitsky Act’ against specific Russian officials – who the US Senators believe should be held accountable in the death of Sergey Magnitsky, an accountant with Hermitage Capital who died in prison in 2009 amidst a tax evasion investigation – has triggered a diplomatic domino effect between the two countries.
Source:
http://rt.com/politics/russia-us-moscow-medvedev-clinton-071/
