US DoS and Russian MFA exchanged caustic remarks on Twitter

 04 January 2021

The Russian Foreign Ministry commented on the words of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about the "toughness" of the outgoing administration towards Russia, posting a painting by Adolf Norten "Napoleon's Retreat from Moscow" along with the words, "Way to go, tough guys".

                                                                     

Secretary Pompeo said earlier, "No administration has pursued such a tough policy towards Russia as we do. And the point. There is nothing more to talk about. Look at the facts,” he wrote on Twitter. "Since 2017, the Trump administration has imposed sanctions against more than 365 Russian targets," Pompeo added. According to him, this was a response to "destabilizing and aggressive actions of Russia in Ukraine and throughout Europe."

Earlier, White House National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien said that there is practically nothing to subject to sanctions in Russia. 

“The problem with the Russians is that there isn't much to sanction. I think we have sanctioned 300 organizations and oligarchs in Russia, we have been sanctioning all energy companies, ”said Mr. O'Brien, speaking at the Aspen Institute.

__________________________________________________________

Reference

The painting by the German 19th century battle painter Adolf Norten "Napoleon's Retreat from Moscow" refers to the French invasion of Russia, known in Russia as the Patriotic War of 1812, and in France as the Russian campaign. 

A Wikipedia synopsis:

The Napoleon's Grande Armée numbered around 685,000 soldiers. It was the largest army ever known to have been assembled in the history of European warfare at the time. Napoleon pushed his army rapidly through Western Russia in an attempt to destroy the Russian Army, winning a number of engagements. 

Before a small town of Borodino, seventy miles west of Moscow, the bloodiest single-day action of the Napoleonic Wars, with 72,000 casualties, resulted in a narrow French victory. The Russian Army withdrew the following day, leaving the French without the decisive victory Napoleon sought. A week later, Napoleon entered Moscow, only to find it abandoned and ablaze, soon burning down to the ground. Napoleon stayed in Moscow for a month, waiting for a peace offer that never came. After almost losing a battle near a town Maloyaroslavets, Napoleon began to retreat. The Russian winter came. Lack of food and fodder for the horses, hypothermia from the bitter cold and persistent guerilla warfare upon isolated troops from Russian peasants and Cossacks led to great losses in men, and a breakdown of discipline and cohesion in the Grande Armée. Two more large-scale battles resulted in further losses for the French. When the remnants of Napoleon's main army crossed the Russian border on the way out, only 27,000 soldiers remained; the Grande Armée had lost some 380,000 men dead and 100,000 captured during the campaign. The campaign proved a turning point in the Napoleonic Wars. The reputation of Napoleon suffered severely, and the French dominance in Europe weakened dramatically. These events triggered a major shift in European politics.