Aren’t such antics a sign of impotence? In Russian-American relations, yes, given the fact that neither side has any leverage over the other except symbolically, perhaps. But the Americans do understand the language of “reciprocity”. In 2014, US Congress voted to rename Washington Street where the Chinese embassy is located as Liu Xiaobo Plaza (after the Chinese dissident.) However, when it transpired that the Chinese side might simply rename the road where the US embassy in Beijing is based as Snowden Street (after the famous ex-CIA whistleblower who rubbished the US espionage system after landing in Hong Kong in 2013), Americans retreated.