John F. Kerry the Minor: How Is the US Secretary of State Doing in European Politics?

John Forbes Kerry fought bravely in Vietnam, but as secretary of state he hasn’t shown his claws yet. Managing U.S. foreign policy turned out to be more difficult than passing judgment sitting in a chair in the Senate.

Recently the United States’ top diplomat has been going through a particularly bad patch. On March 30, he met in Paris with Sergei Lavrov, Russian minister of foreign affairs. They both confirmed that “Ukraine needs a political solution.” It doesn’t mean, however, that they reached an agreement. According to Kerry, the authorities in Kiev can guarantee minority language rights and have already started constitutional reforms. Lavrov insists that one of the ways to relieve the tension in Ukraine is to convert it into a federal state.

American analysts recapitulate the proposal with one word: impudence. It is not a secret that the residents in the eastern part of the country incline toward Russia, and in the west toward Europe, and granting autonomy to the regions could lead to a split Ukraine. Also, on the basis of what law does Moscow want to impose a territorial system on its sovereign neighbor? The answer is: the law of the stronger.

For now the White House wants to gain some time, assuming that an appearance of agreement may withdraw a threat of confrontation. Just wait until the election on May 25. Russians, by contrast, fake flexibility in order to put to sleep the vigilance of the East: Avoid strict sanctions and discourage NATO from taking more determined steps. It is John Kerry who has to play this game of appearances with Moscow. Right after Russian troops entered Kiev, the U.S. secretary of state spoke about “a brazen act of aggression” and about Russia being “in violation of its international obligations.” With his current role, he doesn’t attract any supporters.

When Kerry took up his post, he seemed perfectly prepared for the role of chief diplomat, although his opponents already spoke with irony that his experience is — above all — theoretical. For three years he managed the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. His father Richard was a diplomat, too — he worked in Berlin, Oslo and the Bureau of United Nations Affairs. Among ancestors of the secretary we can find both poor immigrants from Europe (on the father’s side) and the flower of American aristocracy (on the mother’s side).