The Foreign Service Journal, March 2022

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MARCH 2022 17 In response, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told TASS news agency on Jan. 13 that there was “a dead end or difference of approaches. ” Initiatives to ease the tension between Cold War foes have proven unsuccessful. President Joe Biden and President Vladi- mir Putin spoke twice in December 2021, calls during which Biden warned that Washington could impose new sanctions against Moscow if it takes further military action against Ukraine. Putin responded that such a U.S. move could lead to a com- plete rupture of ties between the nations. Tensions, however, have been high for the past year. In the latest saga of an ongoing diplomatic expulsion spat, Russia ordered U.S. embassy staff who had been in Moscow for more than three years to fly home by Jan. 31, a retaliatory move for a U.S. decision to limit the terms of Russian diplomats. In early February, Deputy Chief of Mission Bart Gorman was declared persona non grata and directed to leave Russia by Feb. 14 with his family. This appears to be in retaliation for the U.S. decision to expel the Russian deputy chief of mission fromWashington, D.C. Staff- ing at U.S. Embassy Moscow has been reduced from nearly 1,200 in 2017 to 120. Havana Syndrome Aid on the Way T he Fiscal Year 2022 defense appropri- ations bill President Joe Biden signed into law on Dec. 27 includes (among many other provisions) $30 million in assistance for victims of the anomalous health inci- dents known as Havana syndrome. As the November 2021 edition of Talk- ing Points reported, more than 200 U.S. officials around the world have reported symptoms of the mysterious illness, which many believe to be caused by directed energy. On Jan. 20, U.S. media outlets reported that, according to an unnamed official briefed on the matter, the CIA has assessed it is unlikely that Havana syndrome symptoms are the result of a global campaign by a hostile foreign Yes, they [Russia] are preparing for military conflict, but I think the preference at this point is to go down the diplomatic track. The steps that they’ve taken over the past several months, from the Kremlin’s perspec- tive, have been efforts to compel the United States to engage seriously on what they say their primary concerns are, which is basically the disposition of NATO forces in Europe and the expansion over the past 30 years. Something I think we need to give serious consideration to is something that I would call a moratorium on the further expansion of NATO eastward for a defined period, say 20 to 25 years. The period is not set in stone, that’s a matter of negotiation; but the idea here is to have a period long enough so the Russians can say that we have met our major security concern … [and by] the same token we haven’t compromised our view that the door to NATO is still open. —Thomas Graham, former FSO and former senior director for Russia at the National Security Council, speaking on Fareed Zakaria’s “GPS” on CNN, Jan. 16. Contemporary Quote