PUTIN GIVES COOL WELCOME TO ENVOY AFTER DECLARING US 'WANTS TO SUBJUGATE' RUSSIA (STA BREAKING NEWS and ARCHIVES)

by STANews , Wednesday, November 19, 2014, 12:15

Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, US ambassador to Russia John Tefft and Russia’s president Vladimir Putin at a ceremony of presenting credentials by foreign ambassadors, at the St. Alexander Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace on 19 November 2014 in Moscow, Russia. Photograph: TASS/Barcroft Media

The new US ambassador to Moscow presented his credentials to Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, less than a day after the Russian president declared the US “wants to subjugate us” but would never succeed.

Ambassador John Tefft met Putin in a slightly awkward ceremony during which new international envoys showed the president their credentials. Perhaps reflecting the frosty state of affairs between Washington and Moscow, the men said little to each other as they shook hands in a huge gilded hall at the Kremlin. Putin did however offer a typically stern proposal of rapprochement.

“We are ready for practical cooperation with our American partners in different sectors – on the principles of mutual respect for each others’ interests, fairness and non-interference in internal affairs.”

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http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/19/new-us-ambassador-russia-john-tefft-putin