When President Obama moved to retaliate against Russian interference in the election, one of the actions taken was to close Russian diplomatic compounds in Maryland and New York.
The Russian diplomats and the two compounds, located in Maryland and New York, were engaged in intelligence activities but were not alleged to have been involved in the hacking related to the election, White House Homeland Security adviser Lisa Monaco told reporters. The moves are instead part of the US's comprehensive reaction to election-related hacking as well as recent harassment of US personnel in Russia.
But what President Obama took away, Donald Trump is happy to return.
The Trump administration is moving toward handing back to Russia two diplomatic compounds, near New York City and on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, that its officials were ejected from in late December as punishment for Moscow’s interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Has Russia apologized for its involvement in the election? No. Has Russia admitted its involvement in the election? No. Instead Vladimir Putin is backing Trump’s talking point by saying that the whole idea of Russian hacking is a fantasy designed to excuse Democratic losses in the election.
And it looks like Trump is rewarding Putin for staying in his corner.
Originally the Trump regime set a simple goal for letting Russia have the compounds back.
Early last month, the Trump administration told the Russians that it would consider turning the properties back over to them if Moscow would lift its freeze, imposed in 2014 in retaliation for U.S. sanctions related to Ukraine, on construction of a new U.S. consulate on a certain parcel of land in St. Petersburg.
Did Russia make that deal? No. Instead, the Trump regime simply gave Russia what they wanted.
Two days later, the U.S. position changed. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at a meeting in Washington that the United States had dropped any linkage between the compounds and the consulate, according to several people with knowledge of the exchanges.
Lavrov and Kislyak not only met with Tillerson, they notably met with Trump, by special request of Putin, at a meeting where Trump notably handed over classified information sourced from an Israeli agent. But it can’t be said that Russia is getting the compounds back for nothing. Trump is getting … something. He’s just not telling anyone what that something would be.
A summary of the great deal making from Team Trump.
T: We’ll give your compounds back if you approve our new consulate.
P: We won’t approve the consulate.
T: Here, take your compounds anyway.
In addition to the compounds, Russia may be looking for something else from Trump—support for moving Ambassador Kislyak into a new role.
Changes in the administration’s official posture toward the compounds come as Russian media recently suggested that Kislyak, about to leave Washington after serving as ambassador since 2008, may be proposed by the Kremlin to head a new position as U.N. undersecretary general for counterterrorism.
So Kislyak, long known to be Russia’s top spy in America, would obtain a position that allowed him to stay in America where he can tend his assets. The move would also give Kislyak a position where he could shape policy on terrorism to help exempt Russian allies and define terrorism as he wants.
Kislyak, who met and spoke during the campaign and transition with President Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn; Trump’s White House adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner; Attorney General Jeff Sessions; and others, is known to be interested in the post. His replacement as ambassador, Deputy Foreign Minister Anatoly Antonov, was confirmed last month by the Russian Duma, or parliament. Officials in Moscow said Russian President Vladimir Putin will officially inform Trump of the new ambassador when the two meet in July, at the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg. It will be Trump’s first meeting with Putin as president.
Then maybe Antonov could have Trump out for a burger—at Russia’s restored compound in New York.