U.S. Envoy to Russia to Quit

Updated Feb. 4, 2014 12:42 p.m. ET

Michael McFaul arrives for the G-20 summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Sept. 5, 2013. Associated Press

MOSCOW—The U.S. ambassador to Russia, who was the architect behind the Obama administration’s “reset” policy with the Kremlin, announced Tuesday that he is stepping down from his post after two rocky years on the job.
Michael McFaul, a political science professor at Stanford University, served as President Barack Obama’s top adviser on Russia for three years before becoming ambassador. He cited family reasons for his departure, which he said would come shortly after the Winter Olympics. The Games in Sochi end on Feb. 23.
“I will leave Russia reluctantly. I love this job. It is a tremendous honor to represent my country here,” he wrote on his blog on the Embassy’s website. “Over the last five years, we have nurtured quiet cooperation on a whole range of issues, from counterterrorism to cybersecurity, as well as maintained cooperation on dozens of issues of mutual interest between our two countries, from space to environmental protection. Taken all together, this is a real record of achievement on some of America’s most vital national interests.”
Mr. McFaul, a Montana native, said he plans to return to Stanford but would continue to work on projects for the administration.
A lifelong academic and expert on Russia and the Soviet Union, the 50-year-old Mr. McFaul joined the Obama team as a key foreign-policy adviser during the 2008 election season, shortly after Russia invaded Georgia. Relations between the U.S. and Russia were in tatters at the end of the Bush administration, and Mr. Obama sought a new approach to diplomacy. Mr. McFaul proposed to relaunch relations.
In the first years of Mr. Obama’s term, Russia and the U.S. signed the New Start arms control treaty, agreed on tougher sanctions on Iran and expanded American supply routes to Afghanistan over Russian airspace.
In May 2011, Mr. McFaul was nominated ambassador but only won the post after a drawn-out, six-month confirmation process that was held up by Mark Kirk, the Illinois Republican who took over Mr. Obama’s Senate seat. Mr. Kirk objected to the administration dealings with Russia on missile defense.
When Mr. McFaul was finally confirmed in December 2011, he was only the second U.S. envoy to Russia in the past 30 years who wasn’t a career diplomat. He arrived in the country a month later determined to forge a new path of openness and goodwill toward Moscow.
Mr. McFaul broke with tradition by actively communicating directly with the Russian public via Twitter and at public speaking events. But he had arrived just as anti-Kremlin protests over disputed elections were heating up and quickly found himself bombarded by criticism.
Two days into his new job, Mr. McFaul was accused on a prime-time broadcast on state-controlled television of being sent to Moscow to help stir up a revolution. He also came under attack for his 2001 book “Russia’s Unfinished Revolution” and for a 2008 article he co-wrote before joining the administration titled “Why Authoritarian Stability is a Myth,” which was critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The next month, he got into an online argument with Margarita Simonyan, the editor in chief of RT, the Kremlin’s English-language news channel over allegations he was promoting regime change. He later got into an ugly Russian-language exchange in the street with reporters from a pro-Kremlin television station who had been following him. The episode, in which he called Russia a “wild country,” was broadcast widely, and Mr. McFaul on Twitter accused the station of reading his e-mail and listening in on his phone calls. The State Department formally expressed concern to Russia’s foreign ministry about Mr. McFaul’s security.
Russian authorities denounced Mr. McFaul’s approach early on, accusing him of using U.S. aid money to support the anti-Kremlin protests. The Kremlin later ordered that the U.S. Agency for International Development cease operations in the country.
“McFaul’s time in Moscow was marred by an intense pressure campaign against him,” said Andrew S. Weiss, an expert on Russian-U.S. relations at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “The Russian government seemed to prioritize making him a lightning rod as part of a false narrative of the U.S. role in the demonstrations rather than pursuing the reset any further.”
Mr. McFaul later dialed back his outspoken approach and became less visible, but during his time in the post, relations between Russia and the U.S. grew increasingly strained, with the governments sparring over how to tackle the civil war in Syria and Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Relations grew even more tense after Moscow banned adoptions of Russian children by American parents and granted political asylum to former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, who was charged under the espionage act for leaking details of American surveillance programs.
In a statement, the White House said Mr. Obama was “deeply grateful for Ambassador McFaul’s extraordinary service.”
“Mike has been tireless in advocating for the universal values that America stands for around the world, reaching out to civil society, and recognizing the right of every voice to be heard,” the statement said.
Perhaps underscoring the uneasiness of Mr. McFaul’s tenure, Russia’s foreign ministry responded to the announcement of his departure only by tweeting, “Farewell, Michael!”
Mr. McFaul said despite the disagreements, he felt progress had been made.
“I leave Russia with a strong feeling of satisfaction for how our administration handled these issues without compromising our interests or values,” he said.
Write to Lukas I. Alpert at lukas.alpert@wsj.com

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