Michael McFaul’s Change of Heart

Yesterday I blogged that neither Vladislav Surkov nor Michael McFaul are reading from the same script as they were a few years ago.  Here’s a good example how, buried in an FT story on the Iran sanctions doublespeak:

This fear seemed to be borne out when the Kommersant newspaper yesterday published an interview with Michael McFaul, the senior director of Russian and Eurasian affairs at the US National Security Council, quoting him as saying Washington would seek a new approach to human rights. “We have come to the conclusion that in this aspect we need to pursue the reset and reject previous approaches which have complicated the Russian-American partnership,” Mr McFaul was quoted as saying.

“Mr McFaul gave an indication that the US no longer intends to teach Russia about democracy, creating tension with Moscow, and intends to concentrate on practical work with non-governmental organisations,” the newspaper said.

Certainly doesn’t sound like the same guy who wrote this.  I’ll see if our translator can dig up the Kommersant piece – let us know in the meantime if this is already available in English somewhere.