US says ambassador's remarks 'misunderstood' in Moscow

US says ambassador's remarks 'misunderstood' in Moscow
TimesodIndia
AFP | May 30, 2012, 06.40AM IST
WASHINGTON: Remarks by the US ambassador in Moscow that angered his hosts were "misinterpreted or misunderstood" by the Russian foreign ministry, the US State Department said on Tuesday.

US ambassador Michael McFaul was forced on Monday evening to defend himself after Russia's Foreign Ministry expressed "utmost puzzlement" over his remarks delivered Friday to a group of students at Moscow Higher School of Economics.

State television reported that McFaul said Russia offered former Soviet republic Kyrgyzstan a massive loan to shut the US military base there, a source of irritation, implying Moscow was trying to bribe its partner.

But State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said "something that he said seems to have been misunderstood or misinterpreted by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs."

He was simply trying to say that both the United States and Russia currently have strong relations with Kyrgyzstan, which "is playing an important role" in support of NATO operations in Afghanistan, she said.

"And he was contrasting this to times past in the Soviet era when we used to compete over this sort of thing. And somehow the Russian government seems to have taken that amiss, and they are trying to sort it out there in Moscow."

She did not have a transcript of what was said, but acknowledged that McFaul, a former academic who has angered his Russian hosts in the past, does not use the typical language of a diplomat.

"He speaks plainly, he speaks clearly, he doesn't mince words, he's not a professional diplomat," Nuland said.

"And I think that for the Russian government, the fact that he speaks clearly when things are going well and he speaks clearly when they're going less well, is something that they're having to get used to," she added.