Ambassador McFaul: "We Never Set Out To Have A Good Relationship With Russia"
KIEV — Most ambassadors prefer to go out with a whimper rather than a bang, a few platitudes at their farewell reception covering for any disagreements behind closed doors. Michael McFaul is not most ambassadors.
McFaul’s last major act before he steps down later this month after two years as U.S. envoy to Russia was to deliver Vladimir Putin a slap in the face. The U.S. Olympic delegation he shepherded to Sochi was studded with openly gay athletes instead of the high-profile officials the Kremlin craved, a calculated rebuke of Russia’s anti-gay policies.
“Our message could not have been clearer,” McFaul recently told BuzzFeed by phone from Moscow. “It’s hard to imagine a more high-profile delegation to the Olympics. Do you remember who was at the opening of the last Olympics? I don’t.”
Sandy-haired and genial to a fault, McFaul, 50, will be long remembered in the pantheon of U.S. ambassadors to Moscow, if not always for the right reasons. He presided over a period marked by enmity and frisson notable even for U.S.-Russia relations, long strained. He lasted an unusually short time in the job: ambassadorial postings generally last a year longer, if not more. And he was an unusual choice to begin with. McFaul had planned to resume his academic career at Stanford after two years as Barack Obama’s Russia hand before the offer to make him only the second political appointment to Moscow in 30 years came “totally out of the blue.”
http://www.buzzfeed.com/maxseddon/ambassador-mcfaul-we-never-set-out-to-have-a-good-relationsh