Matthew Bryza: Russia’s security services created an artificial traffic accident for me, so I ended up leaving – EXCLUSIVE

The editorial team of The Daily Baku conducted an exclusive interview with Matthew Bryza, former diplomat, former co-chair, and former United States Ambassador to Azerbaijan.

We are presenting the interview in parts.

“I joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1988 at the end of the Cold War, but while the Berlin Wall still existed, and before its demise really was kicked off with the Solidarity negotiations in Poland that led to the end of the communist system in Poland. A major reason why I joined the Foreign Service was because, number one, as a Polish-American and number two, as a student of Cold War history with a very strong focus in the control of nuclear weapons, I really wanted to work behind the Iron Curtain, so in the Soviet Union and or in Eastern Europe and Poland was very special to me for my own family reasons. And it turned out that in 1989, I was actually assigned. My first assignment was to Poland. I didn't think there was much of a chance that that would happen, but I was extremely happy,” Bryza emphasized.

The former diplomat noted that during his first year in Poland, he worked at the US Consulate in Poznan, in the western part of the country. His very first day on the job coincided with the first day that free market prices were introduced into Poland’s post communist economy.

“In June of 1989, some viewers may recall that there had been a set of negotiations called the Roundtable Talks between the Solidarity movement on one side and the communist government of Poland on the other side.

And the outcome of those negotiations, well, there were several, but the key one was that the communist regime allowed there to be elections to the Polish parliament, free elections. And they happened in July, as I recall, and Solidarity won all the seats in the lower house and all but one of the seats in the upper house in the Senate. And so for a few months then there was power sharing where the executive branch was controlled by the communists, and the parliament was controlled by Solidarity, so by the people.

And then finally, by August, then the government was also given over by the communist regime to the Solidarity movement, to one of its leaders and founders. As prime minister, it was Prime Minister Mazowiecki, Tadeusz Mazowiecki. So I had a deep academic and dis-family personal interest in the communist bloc. It was also the desire to somehow participate or encourage the reduction of nuclear threat between the United States and the Soviet Union that drove my interests in the region.”

Matthew Bryza also touched upon a particularly striking episode: "I ended up serving in Moscow from 1995 to 1997. The security services created an artificial traffic accident for me, so I ended up leaving and had to find a new job back at the State Department."

He added that he became friends with his former academic adviser at Stanford University, Ambassador Richard Morningstar. “And he said, Matt, Morningstar is, he moved to the State Department, he's got this amazing job where he coordinates all of the U.S. assistance, economic assistance, and other assistance to the countries of the former Soviet Union. And you should talk to him because I think you'd really like to work together.

And I loved him, and we did. And then the next year, oh, and my portfolio was U.S. assistance to the South Caucasus and Central Asia. So that's how I got connected to the South Caucasus and Central Asia.

And then the next year, President Clinton appointed Ambassador Morningstar to be the advisor to the President of the United States and Secretary of State on Caspian Basin energy diplomacy. And Ambassador Morningstar asked me to come along and support him and then be his deputy. And that was my very strong introduction to the region.

And after that, I moved over to the White House for four years on the National Security Council staff and did the same portfolio. And then, you know, my career progressed from there,” the former ambassador told The Daily Baku.