Reliable Expectations
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Look, the last thing you want from a Presidential administration is a coherent, unambiguous position on relations with a fellow nuclear power:
Wow. #RexTillerson calls out Russia for “invading Ukraine, taking Crimea,” and aiding atrocities in Syria.
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) January 11, 2017
#RexTillerson says Ukraine should’ve beefed up its military response in the east when Russia invaded. Has he read his party platform?
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) January 11, 2017
Rubio asks #RexTillerson if Russian interfering in U.S. elections could only have been done with Putin’s approval. Tillerson agrees.
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) January 11, 2017
And hey, all of those things have the benefit of being true (probably with the exception of Ukraine’s military response; there were serious escalation concerns that Kiev would have struggled to manage). The problem is that the guy at the top seems to have a different view on all of this than the guy he selected as his Secretary of State. This matters if conflict develops between Russia and any of its neighbors; Moscow needs to have a firm sense of what the United States will do if it decides to eat more of Ukraine, or of the Baltics.