Obama’s spat with Moscow is latest in long line
WASHINGTON — U.S. relations with Moscow during and after the Cold War have been marred by diplomatic dustups ranging from espionage scandals to an Olympics boycott.
Current tensions, highlighted by President Barack Obama’s decision to impose sanctions and expel 35 Russia diplomats, are exceptional because they stem from U.S. allegations of Russian cyber meddling in the presidential election and because they are playing out during a White House transition. They also coincide with a collapse of military-to-military relations and nervousness in Europe over Russia’s annexation of Crimea and aggression in eastern Ukraine.
Some of the more significant episodes of the past three decades:
— MAY 2013: A U.S. diplomat was expelled after the Kremlin’s security services said he tried to recruit a Russian agent, and they displayed tradecraft tools that seemed straight from a spy thriller: wigs, packets of cash, a knife, map and compass, and a letter promising millions for “long-term co-operation.” The FSB, the successor agency to the Soviet-era KGB, identified the diplomat as Ryan Fogle, a third secretary at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. The Fogle case was a reminder that years after the Cold War ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia and the United States still spy on each other and maintain active counterespionage operations.