On Nov. 15, the Russian Embassy in the U.S. posted a statement on its Telegram account commemorating Nov. 16 as marking the 92nd anniversary of America’s establishment of diplomatic relations with the then-Soviet Union. It claimed that it marked “a new milestone in the history of interaction between the two countries, the roots of which go back to the early 19th century,” and concludes that that hopeful history demonstrates how “In today’s multipolar world … a window of opportunity has opened for Russia and the United States as great powers to normalize relations” again today.
The statement begins by referring to the “political wisdom of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and other clear-headed U.S. politicians,” who decided to officially recognize the Soviet Union in 1933. In a just short time, “Prominent Soviet diplomat Alexander Troyanovsky was appointed the first Plenipotentiary Representative of the U.S.S.R. to the United States, and Special Assistant to the Secretary of State William Bullitt—as the first U.S. Ambassador to Moscow.”
