As has become a pretty regular occurrence, McFaul has taken to Twitter to defend himself. Yet the Obama administration has barely raised any public protest at the verbal attacks or harassment the Ambassador has faced. The spectacle of an American ambassador being harassed and treated with visible contempt by his host country is bad enough; the American government's anaemic response insults not only McFaul, but the American people.

This behaviour is a small example of a much larger problem, and a reality the Obama administration refuses to face: Russia is an authoritarian state that relies on coercion to survive. America can bend over backwards to accommodate them, and still find its hand slapped away because, fundamentally, the Putin regime judges Russia and America's mutual interests to be few and far between. President Obama need only consider Russia's culpability in the brutality raging in Syria to see what kind of state they are dealing with.  What will it take to convince the Obama administration that their dreams of comity will not materialise as long as Putin prevails, and to stand up against their bullying-both against the Ambassador and abroad? 

Julia Pettengill is the Co-Chair of the Russia Studies Centre at the Henry Jackson Society, and author of the report The Russia Opposition: A Survey of Individuals, Groups, Strategies and Prospects