WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday that he was “deeply disturbed by the violent repression” of Russian demonstrators and the arrests of thousands of people across the country who demanded the release of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Twitter that the US was behind the protests, claiming “gross intervention in Russian affairs”, but the demonstrations show that the Russians are fed up with “corruption” and “autocracy”, said Blinken NBC News in its first television interview since taking office last week.
“The Russian government makes a big mistake if it believes this is about us,” he said. “It’s about them. It’s about the government. It’s about the frustration that the Russian people feel about corruption, about autocracy, and I think they need to look inside, not outside.”
Navalny was arrested on January 17 on his return to Moscow, after recovering in Germany from what the United States and other Western governments consider a chemical attack by Vladimir Putin’s government. Navalny’s organization sent letters to Blinken and the White House asking the United States to sanction Putin’s financiers to pressure him to release Navalny, who is due to appear in court on Monday.
Blinken said he is analyzing a response to Navalny’s situation, along with other actions by the Russian government, including electoral interference in 2020, the Solar Winds hack and allegations that rewards have been made to American troops in Afghanistan. Former President Donald Trump did not pressure Putin on these issues. President Joe Biden did this last week on his first phone call.
Blinken did not commit to specific sanctions, but said: “The president could not have been more clear in his conversation with President Putin.”
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Turning to China, Blinken said that even with World Health Organization inspectors in Wuhan, Beijing is “far short of expectations” when it comes to allowing experts to access the sites where the coronavirus was discovered.
He called China’s lack of transparency as a “deep problem” that must be addressed.
While millions of people struggle in the U.S. economy hit hard by the pandemic, Blinken said the Biden government is looking to see if the tariffs imposed by Trump on the U.S. are doing more harm to the U.S. than his goal.
US farmers suffered huge losses after China retaliated, chasing US exports, in particular agricultural products.
He also criticized Chinese actions in Hong Kong, where he said China had acted “in a blatant way” to undermine its commitments to the semi-autonomous island. Under a comprehensive national security law that criminalizes secession and subversion, pro-democracy protesters were swept away in waves of arrests.
Blinken said the United States should open its doors to those fleeing repression, such as Britain, which controlled Hong Kong until 1999, said it would.
“We see people who were, again, in Hong Kong defending their own rights, the rights that they thought were guaranteed,” said Blinken. “If they are victims of the repression by the Chinese authorities, we must do something to give them shelter.”
He said that the United States will gain strength in the confrontation with China by engaging again in global affairs and with international institutions, “because when we step back, China is committed.”
“The challenge posed by China is as much about some of our own self-inflicted weaknesses as it is about China’s emerging strength,” said Blinken, a clear reference to Trump’s aversion to groups like NATO, the UN and the World Health Organization.
Asked how America’s opponents are using the attack on the US Capitol as propaganda to undermine US democracy, Blinken acknowledged that the January 6 rebellion “creates an even greater challenge for us to carry the flag of democracy, freedom and human rights around the world, because, sure enough, people in other countries are telling us: ‘Well, why don’t you look at yourself first?’ “
But, he argued, as the United States is struggling with its problems in front of the entire world, they “send a powerful message to countries that are trying to sweep everything under the rug”.
Blinken said he believed that American leadership in the world requires investment in the institution of the State Department and the diplomats who work there. Blinken said that this means a diverse workforce that “looks like the country it represents”.
“We will recruit, we will retain and we will be responsible for that,” he said.
He also promised to put more foreign service career officers in senior positions. While the number of career diplomats in high-level positions at the State Department has dropped to its lowest point under Trump, the numbers have been declining for decades.
In 1975, 60 percent of senior positions were filled by non-partisan civil servants, compared with 30 percent in 2014, when Blinken was starting out as assistant secretary.
“I am determined to put our career people in positions of responsibility and leadership,” he said.
On Iran, Blinken warned that Tehran was months away from being able to produce enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon, saying it could only be “a matter of weeks” if Iran continues to lift restrictions on the nuclear deal.
He said the United States is willing to go back to complying with the 2015 nuclear deal if Iran does and then to work with US allies and partners on a “longer and stronger” deal covering other issues. Pressured whether the release of detained Americans, which was not part of previous negotiations, would be an absolute condition for an expanded nuclear treaty, he did not commit.
“Regardless of … any deal, these Americans need to be released. Period,” he said, adding, “We will focus on making sure they get home one way or the other.”
Asked whether North Korea should be recognized as a nuclear power, Blinken said Biden asked his national security team to review the US policy on Pyongyang “across the board” to determine the most effective ways to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula. . The tools, he said, include the possibility of new sanctions in coordination with U.S. allies, as well as unspecified diplomatic incentives.
The Biden government is also reviewing the US relationship with Saudi Arabia to make sure it is consistent with the US’s interests and values, he said. He called the killing of Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 “an outrageous act against a journalist and a US resident”.
But he refused to condemn Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who the CIA concluded ordered Khashoggi’s murder. Both Trump and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo refused to publicly acknowledge their role and overturned Congressional resolutions that blocked arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
Blinken has deep roots in the State Department as a son, stepson and nephew of ambassadors. He was undersecretary in the Obama administration, and his wife, Evan Ryan, now secretary of the Biden White House Office, served as undersecretary of state for educational and cultural affairs in the Obama administration. Blinken is the first secretary of state in decades to take office with a young family at home.
“Having two young children is actually an incredible source of inspiration, because it really underlies what I’m trying to do,” he said. “We are all here to try to ensure that life is better every day for our fellow citizens. And, especially, what we are doing is trying to make a world a little safer, a little more prosperous, a little healthier for our children. and grandchildren. “