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America's new envoy to Russia has warned that Moscow will pay a long-term "price" for its ongoing invasion of Ukraine, adding that bilateral relations are at "one of the lowest points" in memory.

Ambassador Lynne Tracy took up her post in January 2023, ending an almost three-year period in which the U.S. did not have a permanent ambassador in Moscow. Those three years have seen a bilateral nadir, in particular due to the Kremlin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

In an interview with Russian newspaper Kommersant, Tracy said President Vladimir Putin's decision to expand Moscow's war on Ukrainein progress since the seizure of Crimea and parts of the eastern Donbas region from 2014has only worsened Russia's security outlook.

"Russia made a miscalculation, judging by the way it decided to enter Ukraine, clearly expecting the Ukrainians to greet the troops that entered, and the Ukrainians did not," Tracy said.

"The Ukrainians responded with resistance, we see this resistance, it is not a product of propaganda. We see that Ukrainians demonstrate the will to fight and defend their country."

The full-scale warnow into its second year with no sign of a peace deal or even a ceasefirehas, Tracy said, "weakened Russia and forced the Russians to pay a price that will only increase over time. Sanctions and export controls have caused billions of dollars in damage to the Russian financial sector and severely slowed down the country's technological progress."

"These are immediate costs, but there are also long-term costs resulting from missed opportunities to invest in Russia's future. Lost opportunities are usually hard to get back, almost impossible. Time cannot be turned back. And again, the main question arises: how will all this help the future of Russia? Her development? The future of her youth, her next generation?"

There appears little hope of a sudden dtente between Moscow and its Western adversaries. Putin and his top allies are doubling down on their Ukrainian gambit, seemingly hoping to outlast Western support for Kyiv and retain the 20 percent or so of the country still occupied by Russian troops.

Russian officials have repeatedly framed their invasion of Ukraine as a pre-emptive defensive conflict against NATO, the expansion of which the Kremlin has repeatedly cited as a key factor in its decision to launch its so-called "special military operation."

Indeed, figures including Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov have openly said that Russia is now effectively at war with the U.S. and its NATO allies.

Tracy suggested Putin's attack on Ukraine has only exacerbated Moscow's long-held concerns about NATO encroachment and strategic isolation.

"Now Ukrainians are even more determined to join NATO," she said. "And not only Ukrainians, but Finland and Sweden, countries that have been neutral for a long time. Finland has just joined NATO and we expect Sweden to be next."

"When I hear how in Russia all these actions are explained by security considerations, and then I look at the current situation, I can't find an answer to the question: how did all this help to strengthen Russia's security?"

Tracy told Kommersant that the U.S. "does not consider Russians as enemies." But, she added: "Our relationship is at one of the lowest points that can be remembered for a very long time [...] It is sad to see the direction in which Russia is moving: it seems to be moving into the past, in times of repression."

"Russia has the right to prioritize its foreign policy as it sees fit," the envoy added. "Now there is a lot of talk about Russophobia, the abolition of Russia, the abolition of the future of Russia. This is not the goal of the United States. And we certainly do not want to abolish the people of Russia in any way."

"Our differences are with the government of Russia, but not with its people," Tracy said.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova dismissed Tracy's interview on her Telegram channel, writing: "The people of Russia are being killed on a tip from the United States tip, with United States money, with United States weapons, by the hands of a regime brought to power by the United States as a result of a coup d'tat directed by the United States."

Zakharova was referring to the 2014 Maidan Revolution, a popular uprising by a broad coalition of pro-Western groups that toppled pro-Kremlin President Viktor Yanukovych. Protests broke out after Yanukovych suddenly abandoned an agreed cooperation deal with the European Union in favor of closer ties with Moscow.

Yanukovych fled Ukraine for Russia after several months of escalating protests, and after Ukrainian security forces killed more than 100 protesters. The former president is still resident in Russia, and early in the 2022 invasion was touted as a potential puppet leader to be installed by the Kremlin.

Addressing that Russian talking point, Tracy told Kommersant of Yanukovych: "A situation in which a leader who has lost support and is afraid of his own people decides to flee cannot be called a 'coup.'"

Newsweek has contacted the Russian Foreign Ministry to request comment.

Simon Smitha former British ambassador to Ukraine now at the Chatham House think tanktold Newsweek Tracy's interview was "what I would expect someone representing the U.S. administration to be staying," given the poor state of bilateral relations.

"Tracy has very skillfully combined the opportunity to say some pretty blunt things about how badly the Putin administration had messed up and its calculations on Ukraine, but also kept in mind the fact that she has a job to do in Russia and that you have to choose your words very carefully," explained Smith, who led the British embassy in Moscow's economic and trade departments from 1998 to 2002 and also served as the director for Russia, the South Caucuses, and Central Asia at the British Foreign Ministry.

Smith said there is little hope for a "return to normal" in Moscow-Western relations while Putinism reigns in Russia.

"While Putin is in powerand whether it's Putin or whether it's some other equally unworkable successorunless there is a fundamental change of strategy, vision, and approach from the Russian administration, I really don't see a basis for going back to the way we used to cooperate. In fact, I see a lot of arguments for a relationship which is pretty much whittled down to a minimalist one."

"I also think Putin has massively miscalculated the Western response," Smith added. "I think he probably doesn't fully grasp what is going on now, which is an accelerated process among many countries who used to have a cooperative relationship with Russia but are now in a process of accelerating their move to living without any dependence on Russia and without any need for Russia."

Smith compared Russia's trajectory to that of North Korea, with which Western powers have extremely limited relations outside of ensuring proper deterrence of Pyongyang's nuclear threats. "I'm not saying that Russia will end up as the next North Korea, but there is a similarity," he said.

"Putin has taken Russia down that path where we will not need Russia's energy exports," Smith added. "He thought that we would be chronically dependent on those for the indefinite future. We will not need industrial cooperation with Russia because the Russian economy will be in a pitiful state."

"We can do without Russia. And I think that is increasingly what is going to be the assumption of many states in the Euro-Atlantic community."

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Russians Will Pay for 'Miscalculation' in Ukraine: New U.S. Envoy to Moscow - Newsweek