Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


Jon Huntsman, US Ambassador to Russia, Resigns

Charles Maynes

   MOSCOW - U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon M. Huntsman Jr. will resign from
   his post effective Oct. 3 -- capping a tumultuous two-year tenure in
   Moscow defined by sinking bilateral relations, despite efforts to stem
   the damage.

   "American citizenship is a privilege and I believe the most basic
   responsibility in return is service to country," wrote Huntsman in a
   [1]resignation letter delivered to President Donald Trump on Tuesday
   and first published inThe Salt Lake Tribune, a paper owned by
   Huntsman's brother.

   "To that end, I am honored by the trust you have placed in me as United
   States Ambassador to Russia during this historically difficult period
   in bilateral relations."

   The election shadow

   Huntsman's tenure was defined by fallout from lingering anger over
   allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential
   elections.

   He arrived just months after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered
   the mass expulsion of 755 American diplomats from the U.S. Embassy in
   Moscow -- a delayed response to earlier reprisals by the Obama
   administration.

   Subsequent tit-for-tat expulsions saw U.S. Embassy numbers dwindle,
   while American-imposed sanctions on Moscow further poisoned the
   relationship.

   "It was clear that for better or worse, relations aren't decided in the
   embassy," said Alexander Baunov, an analyst with the Moscow Carnegie
   Center, in an interview with VOA.

   Despite the "diplomatic wars," Baunov said, Huntsman was "a low-profile
   ambassador" who worked to keep the relationship civil.

   Indeed, Russian officials reacted to Huntsman's announced departure by
   recalling his tenure as mainly a lost opportunity, with the ambassador
   hostage to what Moscow portrays as unjustified and pervasive
   anti-Russian sentiment in Washington.

   "We regard him as a professional, but unfortunately, given the
   conditions we observe now in the U.S., realizing the potential in our
   relations proved impossible," said Maria Zakharova, Russia's Foreign
   Ministry spokeswoman, discussing Huntsman's departure in an interview
   with Echo of Moscow radio.

   Assessing Huntsman's impact on U.S.-Russian relations on his Twitter
   account, Alexey Pushkov, a pro-Kremlin foreign policy blogger, was even
   more dismissive.

   "He couldn't improve, or lower [relations], since there was nowhere
   lower to go," Pushkov argued. "Little depended on him."

References

   1. https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2019/08/06/jon-huntsman-us/

.