Why Is John Kerry in Russia?

The Atlantic – Adam Chandler

Tuesday seemed like a particularly strange day for Secretary of State John Kerry to pay the highest-level U.S. visit to Russia in nearly two years. The ceasefire in Ukraine hasn’t stopped the daily violence between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian troops. The Russian-backed regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria is reportedly dropping chlorine bombs on civilians again, despite a Russian-brokered deal requiring Syria to destroy its chemical-weapons stockpiles …

But this trip, which comes shortly after a visit by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, may also send the wrong signal.

Kerry landed on the same day that a report co-written by Boris Nemtsov, the Kremlin critic who was assassinated in February, was released. The report asserts that more than 220 Russian soldiers were killed while fighting in Ukraine, where Putin has claimed the Russian army is not involved.

Kerry may have done Putin a favor by taking some of the focus off the Nemtsov report with his Tuesday visit to Sochi.

(AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

A Tiny Crack in the Russian Ice

The Editorial Board – The New York Times

With Russia and NATO dangerously shadowboxing around their borders, and American troops and tanks arriving in Georgia for joint exercises, and with the need for cooperation over Syria, Iran, Yemen and Libya, it was wise to engage in diplomacy …

The United States needs Russia’s cooperation in Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad’s forces have suffered setbacks, raising the question of what next. And, in Iran, where negotiations to limit Tehran’s nuclear program, in which Washington and Moscow are partners, are approaching a critical deadline.

There is always the risk that President Putin will claim that Mr. Kerry’s visit shows the West is finally giving him the respect that he publicly demands. Yet it was also a concession for Mr. Putin to meet with an American official other than the president. In any case, in these “complex and fast-moving” times, to borrow Mr. Kerry’s words, it was a risk worth taking.

(Joshua Roberts/Pool Photo via AP)

Kerry’s Pointless Diplomacy in Russia

Leon Aron – CNN

From the moment John Kerry’s trip to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s summer residence in Sochi on the Black Sea was announced, it was hard to see what the U.S. secretary of state hoped to achieve. Indeed, of the three objectives on Kerry’s official agenda — seeking Russian assistance in ending the Syrian civil war, bringing peace to Ukraine and “keeping the lines of communication open” between the U.S. and Russia — not one made sense …

…One should perhaps give the U.S. secretary of state the benefit of the doubt. Was there an ace up Kerry’s sleeve, something the secretary could use to cajole or threaten Putin? Would Kerry reveal something that would force the Kremlin dictator to alter his geopolitical calculus?

Alas, as the press conference after the talks made painfully clear, not only did Kerry not have anything to show for his efforts, but his post-meeting performance also was a gooey stream of unctuous clichés, non-sequiturs, tautologies and euphemisms that underscored Putin’s diplomatic victory.