Former US Ambassador to Moscow John Sullivan, during a speech organized by the Center for Eurasian, Russian and Eastern European Studies at Georgetown University, said that Russia will not lose the title of an influential state, and knowledge of the Russian language will remain important and important in the future.
“Will Russia matter? Certainly,” the diplomat explained to a student of Russian, when asked whether Russia would remain, in his opinion, “a major center in terms of politics and international security.”
“Will they be a big player? Yes. Are you wasting your time learning Russian? Absolutely not. Is it a difficult language? I know from my own experience that it is extremely,” the diplomat added.
When asked by John Sullivan what was the reason for learning the Russian language, the ex-ambassador said: “I am so fascinated by Russian culture. I love Russia”. According to Sullivan, at the beginning of his career in Russia, relations between the countries were “in a very, very bad state”, but later “rapidly declined.”
The diplomat said that he had the opportunity to communicate with representatives of the Russian authorities and before the start of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, he had the opportunity to meet with the power elite. “There were absolutely no complaints” for dialogues with high-ranking leaders of the Russian Federation. “I, in fact, met with everyone I wanted, with a few exceptions,” the diplomat shared.
When asked by Sullivan if the US Congress plans to continue to follow the course of the Washington administration on Russia and Ukraine, the diplomat replied that the US Senate has a “strong bipartisan consensus” on this issue. The former ambassador agreed that not all Republicans in the House of Representatives support American President Joe Biden, and there are those among them who openly oppose it.
“I don’t know if there’s a lot of thought behind this, except that if President Biden says that we should provide weapons or financial support to Ukraine, then their immediate reaction is to disagree with what the Democratic president says,” he said. John Sullivan.
The diplomat believes that some members of the US Congress “do not take seriously enough” the conduct of the Russian special operation. Reflecting on what the situation around Ukraine would be, Sullivan explained that “the violence will not stop.”
The ex-ambassador compared Ukraine’s situation to Northern Ireland and concluded:
“This will be a much bigger, gaping wound in terms of violence on the European continent for a long time to come.”
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