He came not to brandish a sword but to bring peace and understanding.
He came not to praise so much as to complain.
"We are in crisis," said Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Anatoly Antonov at the President's Forum at the Stimson Center Monday afternoon, speaking of arms control and nuclear disarmament.
They were his favorite topics of the day (and the subject of his dissertation), but the moderator and the audience had other ideas.
We are waiting, waiting, waiting on the U.S. to make decisions, Ambassador Antonov, age 64, said.
Can't we just talk? He invited discussion. He wants discussion.
The ambassador said talking can achieve much progress between the U.S. and the Russian Federation (calling it always, the "Russian Federation" and the U.S., the "United States").
His message was a constant refrain: "Please, I just want to talk this through" and stop this lover's quarrel between my nation and yours. Can't we advance cultural understanding?
Talking with help soothe frayed nerves, he seemed to say, and simplify the task of getting things like visas.
Russian artists, academicians, "our sportsmen"... "cannot come" to the U.S. because they can't get visas, he moaned. Can't you do something about it?
"What is more important than just only dialogue between the United States and Russia?" I ask you! And urge you to "relax the tension," at least, in this sphere which can help solve problems in other areas.
Rather than the bullying personality he receives at Wikipedia, Mr. Antonov was personable and inviting (part of his negotiating skills), willing to sit down and iron out arms control, a subject he strove to accentuate the entire hour, but Stimson president and moderator Brian Finlay and audience members would have little of it.
Early in the session Mr. Finlay tried to steer the ambassador's history lesson on post-World War II and the U.N. Security Council back to the future, but, the ambassador would not give up his quest.
He said he was "very upset when the United States decided to withdraw" from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the "Iran deal." Iran has followed all the rules and regulations required in the agreement, he said.
Mr. Antonov quoted a Japanese proverb: "It's very easy to destroy a castle but it will need three years to erect a new one," and he hopes the U.S. will reconsider. (The U.S. Department of State's website has not been updated for more than three years (!), failing to show Trump's withdrawal from the deal, perhaps because no one is left at the State Department to change it. Go to Wikipedia for current information.)
Maps? if anyone needed map clarification, the ambassador brought colored ones made by a Russian Federation defense agency (where he went to school) to show how much of Europe (all of it) and Russia would be susceptible to missiles shot from...the U.S.?
When pushed obliquely to criticize the "Hanoi Summit," all Mr. Antonov would say was "North Korea is our neighbor," and "we are in favor of peaceful solutions for all problems we face today in that region," but "that's not so easy."
He mentioned Trump's name only twice without criticism. Or praise. (My count of "Putin" utterances was four; nothing worth writing home about.)
The ambassador complained about the Russian prisoner Konstantin Yaroshenko held in a "Kentucky" (sounds like Connecticut) prison for eight years (he said nine), badly needing medical treatment.
Help! I've lost my teeth, and I cannot eat, the ambassador quoted the convicted. I am not asking that he get out of jail free, the ambassador said (paraphrasing), but can't you people please get this man some medical treatment? Some medicine? Can't you reach out to the authorities and request aid? In the name of human decency (like what's practiced in the Motherland), I call on human rights activists to provide medical assistance!
(Obviously, the ambassador is not familiar with U.S. medical treatment. This is not Russia, Mr. Ambassador, where a doctor comes to your house on the first day you report a cold. For teeth, the waiting period in the U.S. is eight plus years!)
(Mr. Yaroshenko is serving a 20-year sentence in a Connecticut prison, not CONtucky which Ambassador Antonov said twice, actually pronouncing it correctly. However, he may know something we don't know, and may have revealed a top state secret.
Mr. Yaroshenko was caught in a drug bust in Africa in 2010. Wave if you've heard this one: His arrest was "set-up.")
The two nations do agree on one topic, the ambassador said: Syria (with little discussion).
After about 45 minutes of ambassadorial talk, Mr. Finlay invited questions from the audience which came from reporters from ABC News, the Guardian, and the Washington Post.
The ABC News reporter asked if the "Kentucky prisoner" could be a possible swap or "gotchas" with Americans presently held in Russian prisons: businessman Michael Calvey and former marine, Paul Whelan.
The ambassador said there was really no comparison since Mr. Whelan's case was still being investigated, and his innocence or guilt has not been determined, so, no, a trade or swap is out of the question. (Maria Butina's name never came up.)
At the end of the talk, Mr. Finlay asked Mr. Antonov to please identify missing topics from the afternoon discussion, and the ambassador said simply: "Afghanistan" (without elaboration).
He offered to visit any group and answer any questions.
He smiled often and seemed quite at ease, making the audience laugh on several occasions.
Ambassador Antonov said he had been "lazy" and visited the University Club near the Russian D.C. residence where he was surprised, during the World Cup, to find Americans watching the competition and supporting the Russians. (During the afternoon, our Washington Capitals championship hockey team, many whose stars are imported Russians, never came up, possibly because the Washington Post's coverage of them is quite lame, and the ambassador might be unaware of Russian heroes in the District of Columbia.)
Mr. Antonov said it appeared the audience was all journalists (there were several empty seats), save one woman shaking her head and waving an object (a white feather?) in the air, but she was not called upon for a question.
Neither was I who wanted to ask him to name, please, the Russian preferred U.S. presidential candidate(s) for 2020.
He said Russians have recently blocked three million U.S. attempts to hack into its I.P. addresses, but do we hear about those?
Can't say that we do! Welcome, Mr. Ambassador, to global exchange and trade!
For video and precise language of the session, see C Span.
P.S. My first draft of this carried a Tass link on Mr. Yaroshenko, but my computer went haywire after a while, flashing messages of concern, and the security system required immediate attention, so I deleted the Tass connection, thinking that might be the cause, and inserted instead (now that my computer likely has a "Russian virus"), a link to Mr. Yaroshenko from ABC News. Things have settled down. It's almost like getting a new set of teeth.
patricialesli@gmail.com
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