Former U.S. Ambassador to Moscow on the Moment He Realized Russia Would Launch a Full-Scale Invasion
John Sullivan on the road to war, diplomatic tensions with Moscow, and volunteering to scrub the embassy toilets.
During his tenure as U.S. ambassador to Russia, John Sullivan had a front-row seat to Russia’s decision to go to war in Ukraine and the diplomatic fallout and economic sanctions that followed. But even before Moscow’s fateful decision to send its troops storming over the border into Ukraine last February, relations between the United States and Russia had reached their lowest point since the Cold War amid several rounds of reciprocal diplomatic expulsions that, over the past five years, whittled the size of the U.S. Embassy’s staff from 1,200 to just 150.
Amy Mackinnon is a national security and intelligence reporter at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @ak_mack
Robbie Gramer is a diplomacy and national security reporter at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @RobbieGramer
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