WASHINGTON --
Russian officials in August held up the evacuation from
Moscow of a sick
American military attache to a hospital in
Germany in the latest episode of a long-running campaign of harassment against American
diplomats in Russia.Diplomatic protocols allow for the fast evacuation of diplomats facing medical emergencies. But the departure of the plane sent to evacuate the attache was delayed for hours for no apparent reason despite
protests from embassy officials and the State Department in Washington, according to several Trump administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive diplomatic issue that some other officials prefer to play down.The Russians eventually relented, and the American, a uniformed officer, was safely evacuated, the officials said.While State and Defense Department officials confirmed there was a medical incident in Russia, they declined to identify the officer and would not provide any details of the case or why he was being evacuated."There was a Department of Defense official from the U.S. Embassy in
Russia that had to be medevacked from the U.S. Embassy out of Russia," said Carla Gleason, a
Pentagon spokeswoman.Military attache offices operate openly in most U.S. Embassies, and are managed by the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon's intelligence arm. A webpage for the office in Moscow says that it "serves as the primary point of contact for all joint U.S.-Russia military activities and communications on defense matters."The State Department's undersecretary of state for management, Brian Bulatao, raised the episode with Russian officials in early September during a meeting in Vienna convened to discuss what one of the Trump administration officials called "bilateral irritants," including the harassment of Americans. But it is not clear how the Russian officials responded.Former U.S. officials with experience in Russia said they could not recall a similar incident happening before and viewed the episode as potentially representing an escalation by Moscow. But they said it would also be consistent with years of intimidation tactics against American diplomats in the Russian capital."If we were bringing in a plane, that means this was really serious. That does not happen very often," said Michael A. McFaul, who served as the U.S. ambassador to Moscow during the Obama administration."When I was ambassador, we felt like we were under siege all the time," McFaul said. He said that delaying a medical flight would fit "the kind of classic harassment that for many years now our people have been putting up with. It's inexcusable, it's horrible."Russia's internal security service, which
Vladimir Putin once directed, "wants foreign officials and their families to feel like they're on enemy soil inside Russia," said Daniel Hoffman, a former CIA station chief who spent five years in Moscow. "They want officials and their families to be under duress," and unable to focus on their jobs."The idea that they would interfere with medical care or put someone's life or well-being at risk is taking the harassment for which Russia has been known since the days of the KGB to a new and dangerous level," Hoffman added.Adding to the diplomatic strain is the Russian detention since December of Paul N. Whelan, a former U.S. Marine whom the Russians arrested in Moscow and charged with spying. Whelan, who denies the charges, faces up to 20 years in prison.And in mid-October, Russian authorities removed three American diplomats from a train headed to an Arctic town near the site of a recent nuclear accident. The State Department said they "were on official travel and had properly notified Russian authorities of their travel."It is also a sensitive moment for the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. The American ambassador to Russia, Jon M. Huntsman Jr., left his post last month, and President
Donald Trump has nominated John Sullivan, the deputy
Secretary of State, to succeed him.In a statement, Russia's Foreign Ministry played down the delay of the attache's departure. It said that the ailing American military officer had passed "right through" border control while still in an ambulance, and that a "slight delay" of about 20 minutes occurred during boarding because the diplomat's "foreign doctors" were mistakenly declared as crew members and required boarding passes, which took time to process."We also inform you that the illness of the American diplomat was not serious. He recovered a long time ago and returned to his place of work in Moscow," the statement added.But an American official said the Russians insisted that the ailing employee undergo "needless" security screening, which required separating him from his doctors and medical equipment."It was eventually smoothed over through diplomatic channels," said the American official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to address delicate diplomatic interactions.The official said the officer returned to Moscow and his duties at the embassy soon after "a medical appointment" in Germany. The official said the officer's condition was not urgent, but could not immediately explain why he needed a medevac aircraft rather than a commercial flight.The Russian statement also pointed a finger back at the United States, charging that it had interfered several years ago with the medical care of Russia's former prime minister and foreign minister, Yevgeny Primakov. A Russian diplomat in the
United States was detained by American authorities after going to a pharmacy to buy medicine for Primakov, who was gravely ill with cancer in Moscow, the statement said,"The medicine was delivered to Russia only after the U.S. Secretary of State, J. Kerry, got involved," the Russian statement charged, referring to John Kerry, who served in that role under President Barack Obama. "But time was wasted."Primakov died of cancer in June 2015 at age 85. Several U.S. officials familiar with the episode said the Russians had been illegally procuring the drugs, drawing the attention of
FBI officials who were unaware of Primakov's connection to the matter.Despite Trump's outreach to Putin, relations between
Washington and Moscow remain generally hostile, and Russian intimidation of American officials in their country has reached levels unseen since the Cold War, current and former American officials say.And while Trump continues to speak in forgiving tones about Putin -- and even suggesting that Russia might rejoin the Group of 7 -- many senior Trump administration officials are furious over the Russian harassment campaign.Harassment of American officials has increased in recent years as relations between the United States and Russia have steadily deteriorated, particularly after the imposition of
sanctions to punish Russian aggression against
Ukraine and the Kremlin's 2016
election interference. The problem grew serious enough that Kerry personally raised the issue with Putin during a March 2016 meeting.That exchange did little good. Three months later, a Russian security guard stationed outside the U.S. Embassy in Moscow tackled an American diplomat trying to enter the building, breaking his shoulder before the American managed to get inside. Russia's Foreign Ministry insisted the diplomat was a spy."The more the US damages relations, the harder it will be for US diplomats to work in Russia," the official account for Russia's Foreign Ministry tweeted soon afterward.Russian officials in America are not harassed or intimidated in the United States, current and former U.S. officials say, although they are closely monitored."We debated whether we should respond in kind," McFaul said, including by more conspicuously tailing Russian officials or staging protests outside the Russian Embassy in Washington. No such actions were ever taken, McFaul added, "because we didn't want to become them."But the United States did expel dozens of Russian diplomats after the poisoning last year of the former Russian spy Sergei V. Skripal and his daughter in Britain.The Russians responded by kicking out dozens of U.S. embassy employees and shutting down the American Consulate in St. Petersburg. Both the American and Russian government are interested in returning some of their employees, but officials described the summer episode as a potential obstacle.Hoffman warned that, without pushback from Washington, American diplomats in Russia would continue to suffer harassment and intimidation."When Russia has in rare circumstances crossed the line, it has been important to hold them accountable and make it a part of our bilateral relationship," he said. "If we fail to do so, then we will risk Russia continuing to do so."This article originally appeared in The
New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company