It's no wonder President Donald Trump no longer needs Rex Tillerson. In little more than a year as secretary of state, Tillerson proved incapable of the dealmaking magic his boss sought at the beginning of his administration. Nowhere was the shortcoming more pronounced than on Russia.
As chief executive of Exxon Mobil, Tillerson went boldly where the U.S. government didn't really want him to go. Contrary to U.S. policy goals and State Department guidance, he did business with the government of Iraqi Kurdistan in 2011. In April 2012, Exxon Mobil and the Russian state-owned oil champion, Rosneft, unveiled a $500 billion Arctic exploration partnership. It was this deal that earned Tillerson the Russian Order of Friendship, which President Vladimir Putin personally pinned on his chest in 2013 (that was before Russia grabbed Crimea but after the U.S.-Russian relationship went cold). Later, the U.S. Treasury Department would accuse Tillerson's management team at Exxon of violating sanctions as it tried to hold on to the partnership after the Crimea annexation.
Trump's election campaign had been all about the upsides of running a sluggish government like an agile business. Getting along with Putin was one of his stated goals. Tillerson, who had had deep doubts about Russia's business climate, made his huge deal with Rosneft by going directly to Putin and building a relationship. His appointment looked logical, inasmuch as anything Trump did followed any kind of logic.
But starting from his confirmation hearing, Tillerson showed that his opening bid in any negotiations would be far less accommodating toward the Kremlin than it was at Exxon Mobil. He was ready to talk to the Kremlin as part of his new job, but by no means as an award-winning friend.
"Russia today poses a danger, but it is not unpredictable in advancing its own interests," Tillerson told senators. "We need an open and frank dialogue with Russia regarding its ambitions, so that we know how to chart our own course."
There was little for Putin to like about Tillerson's clear condemnation of the Crimea grab and Russia's support of Syrian President Bashar Assad. And it wasn't just a starting position in a negotiation. These two subjects — Ukraine and Syria — have dominated Tillerson's rhetoric on Russia during his tenure as secretary of state. Last December, he said there would be no improvement in U.S.-Russia relations until Ukraine crisis was resolved, ignoring the Kremlin's repeated desire to do so as part of a deal with the U.S. And in January, he blamed Russia for chemical attacks in Syria — an impossible starting position for any discussion with the Kremlin.
In other words, Tillerson knew how to negotiate with Putin and his inner circle, but chose not to demonstrate that skill as secretary of state. He must have made up his mind early on that he wouldn't be smeared along with Trump by the unfolding Russia scandal.
That's not how Tillerson sees it. In his telling, the Trump administration tried to talk things through with Russia, but, "quite frankly, after a year, we didn't get very far." There are no public traces of these attempts, though. Tillerson's tone when he spoke about Russia as secretary of state has always been stringently, unflinchingly confrontational.
