The United States Policy towards Russia: A Dossier

Journal Articles

Disclaimer: The materials in this section are from sources outside the U.S. Government and should not be construed as an endorsement of the views or privacy policies contained therein or as official U.S. policy.

Arms Issues Divide U.S. and Russia. Boese, Wade. Arms Control Today, September 2007. pp. 29-32.  Russian President Vladimir Putin’s midsummer visit to President George W. Bush’s seaside family retreat in Maine netted one fish and little else. To be sure, the two governments took some bilateral nuclear cooperation steps but failed to settle sharp disagreements on U.S. anti-missile plans and a European conventional arms pact. READ MORE

Patriotic Indoctrination in Russia's Armed Forces. A Yu Golubev. Military Thought, 2007. Vol. 16, Iss. 1; pp. 109-121. The recent statement made by the Russian Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov about the tentative plans to restore the institution of military priesthood in the army has sparked off a rather lively and extensive discussion both in the army press and in the military circles. READ MORE

RUSSIA AND THE DEADLOCK OVER KOSOVO. Antonenko, Oksana. Survival, September 2007.  pp. 91 - 106.  Russia and the transatlantic community are engaged in a political battle over Kosovo’s right to be granted sovereign statehood outside Serbian jurisdiction, with full rights to organise its own affairs. On perhaps the very last chapter of the protracted and bloody dissolution of the former Yugoslavia, Russia and the West are as divided as ever; and for the West, compromise with a Russia which has grown much more confident and assertive under President Vladimir Putin remains elusive. READ MORE

RUSSIA VS EUROPE: THE SOVEREIGNTY WARS.  Krastev, Ivan. Open Democracy, September 2007.  n.p. The troubled relationship between the European Union and Russia is about more than policies or interests - it reflects a fundamental clash between two political visions of the post-cold-war world, says Ivan Krastev. READ MORE

RUSSIA’S STRATEGIC CHOICES. Trenin, Dmitri. Carnegie Endowment Policy Brief. June 2007. pp. 1-8. With new found self-confidence, Russia’s recent foreign policy has taken on a combative tone, exemplified by Russian President Vladmir Putin’s speech in Munich—and U.S.-Russian relations have plummeted to their lowest level since the end of the Soviet-era. READ MORE

WHAT PUTIN STANDS FOR. Johnson, Reuben Weekly Standard, April 2007, pp. 11-13. The author discusses the relationship between Russia's governing elite, its military-industrial complex and its foreign policy. READ MORE

Aron, Leon. WAS LIBERTY REALLY BAD FOR RUSSIA. Russian Outlook, August 2007. n.p. Full text available from publisher's website

Criticizing preceding regimes is a popular pastime of Russian leaders. But in denouncing the “chaos of the 1990s,” the Vladimir Putin regime seems to have an additional purpose: to defame the idea of liberty itself. Part I of this two-part Russian Outlook examines the claim that the revolution was entirely responsible for Russia’s economic woes in the 1990s. Part II will take issue with the assertion that the Yeltsin years brought nothing but “chaos.” Aron is a director of Russian studies at AEI.

Walker, Edward. CRIME WITHOUT PUNISHMENT: THE LITVINENKO AFFAIR AND PUTIN'S CULTURE OF VIOLENCE.  Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, Summer 2007. pp. 97-106. Full text available upon request

Walker discusses the political persecutions and authoritarian policies of Russian President Vladimir Putin, in relation to the polonium-210 poisoning in London last November of Aleksandr Litvinenko, a former Russian intelligence officer and vehement critic of Pres Putin. Most analysts in the West have concluded that the perpetrators likely had some kind of ties to the Russian state, one possibility being that Litvinenko was killed by a rogue element within Russia's "power ministries" intent on silencing a harsh critic of the Russian government and a "traitor" who had turned on the intelligence services and fled the country. While the Litvinenko case presents Western governments with a major political dilemma, for Western publics it has highlighted the unsavory aspects of Russian politics and business practices. That there is serious speculation in the Western media and fears in Western foreign ministries that Putin may have ordered the assassination of a political enemy on British soil, suggest the extent of Western distrust of Putin and the Russian political and business classes. Edward Walker is the executive director of Berkeley University's center for Soviet and Post-soviet studies.

Walker, Martin. RUSSIA V. EUROPE: THE ENERGY WARS. World Policy Journal, Spring 2007. pp. 1-8. Full text available upon request

The Old Europe of NATO's founding members has proved to be far more accommodating to President Vladimir Putin's determination to reassert Russia's role as a great power, and prepared to tolerate the Kremlin's use of its primary geopolitical asset, its wealth of oil and gas resources. Who is happy about this? Martin Walker is senior director of the Global Business Policy Council, based in Washington, DC. He also a senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center, and editor emeritus and columnist for United Press International.

Gottemoeller, Rose. LOOKING BACK: THE INTERMEDIATE-RANGE NUCLEAR FORCES TREATY. Arms Control Today, June 2007. pp. 41-49. Full text available via ProQuest

It was designed as a global ban on all U.S. and Soviet missiles having a range of 500 to 5,500 kilometers and, for the first time in U.S. treaty history, contained verification measures that permitted the presence of U.S. inspectors on Soviet soil, and vice versa.2 The fact that inspectors could for the first time enter sensitive U.S. and Soviet missile facilities was a breakthrough and harbinger of the end of the Cold War. [...] Russian President Vladimir Putin announced during his State of the Nation address in April that Russia would cease to implement the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty, pending resolution of a dispute with NATO over ratification of an adapted version of the treaty, which is linked in turn to disagreements about the withdrawal of Russian troops from Georgia and Moldova. Rose Gottemoeller is director of the Moscow Center of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Fadeev, A. THE ENERGY CRISIS BETWEEN MOSCOW AND MINSK. International Affairs, 2007, Vol. 53, Issue 3; pp. 96-104. Full text available via ProQuest 

Various conflicts that now and then cloud relations between Russia and Belarus are scary not only for their regularity but also for their long duration and bitterness. But since the union between the two states has been right from the start shaping up as a primitive state entity based on the will (of the lack of it) of political leaders, it will inevitably turn into a field of competing interests that far from always coincide with national interests. leksandr Fadeev, Head of the Belarus Department of the Institute of CIS Countries

Warhola, James W. RELIGION AND POLITICS UNDER THE PUTIN ADMINISTRATION: ACCOMODATION AND CONFRONTATION WITHIN "MANAGED PLURALISM". Journal of Church and State, Winter 2007. pp. 75-96. Full text available via ProQuest

Although the Russian Orthodox Church has understandably and predictably condemned violence and terrorism, it has demonstrated little if any public inclination to pose difficult questions about the Putin administration's policies that may be contributing to the deepening knot of violence. On 16 February 2004, President Putin issued a decree establishing the National Counterterrorism Committee (NAK), after which the Duma passed a bill expanding the powers of the Russian state to counter terrorism; both of these had followed a call by Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov for an international front to combat terrorism. James Worhola is professor of political science at the University of Maine.

Petrov, Nikolai; Lipman, Masha. RUSSIA’S OVERMANAGED DEMOCRACY: WHAT THE KREMLIN HAS SUBSTITUTED FOR EMASCULATED INSTITUTIONS. Carnegie Endowment, April 2007, n.p. Full text available from publisher's website

On April 2, 2007, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace hosted a meeting entitled "Russia’s Overmanaged Democracy: What the Kremlin Has Substituted for Emasculated Institutions" with Nikolai Petrov, Scholar-in-Residence at the Carnegie Moscow Center and Masha Lipman, Editor of Pro et Contra. Mark Medish, Vice President for Studies at the Carnegie Endowment, chaired the discussion. A summary of their remarks is provided here.

Sestanovich, Stephen. WERE THERE TWO YELTSINS? Foreignaffairs.org, May 2007. n.p. Full text available from publisher's website

The passing of Boris Yeltsin renewed debates about his tenure as Russia's first post-Soviet leader and the impact that his presidency — for better or worse — continues to have on Russia today. Writing in Foreign Affairs over a decade ago, Russia expert Stephen Sestanovich argued that Yeltsin had made headway in securing Russia against the three challenges that threatened its survival as a democratic republic: the military and the KGB, the old regime's all-powerful managers of the economy, and ultranationalism. In a new exclusive postscript, Sestanovich now concludes that history's judgment of Yeltsin will ultimately depend on the Russian people's ability to finish what he had imperfectly begun. Stephen Sestanovich is the George F. Kennan Senior Fellow for Russian and Eurasian Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Katz, Mark N . PUTIN, AHMADINEJAD AND THE IRANIAN NUCLEAR CRISIS. Middle East Policy, Winter 2006. pp. 125-131.  Full text available via ProQuest

According to much recent commentary, Russia is back as a major power. The cover of the July 15, 2006 Economist, a magazine noted for its measured tone and sober assessments, featured a photograph of President Vladimir Putin, with a confident air and stern visage, next to the words “Living with a Strong Russia.” This article debunks the conventional wisdom concerning Russia's role as a major global power. Rajan Menon is Monroe J. Rathbone Professor of International Relations at Lehigh University, Alexander J. Motyl is professor of political science and deputy director of the Division of Global Affairs at Rutgers University-Newark.

Menon Rajan; Motyl, Alexander J. THE MYTH OF RUSSIAN RESURGENCE. The American Interest, March/April 2007. pp. 96-101. Full text available from publisher's website

According to much recent commentary, Russia is back as a major power. The cover of the July 15, 2006 Economist, a magazine noted for its measured tone and sober assessments, featured a photograph of President Vladimir Putin, with a confident air and stern visage, next to the words “Living with a Strong Russia.” This article debunks the conventional wisdom concerning Russia's role as a major global power. Rajan Menon is Monroe J. Rathbone Professor of International Relations at Lehigh University, Alexander J. Motyl is professor of political science and deputy director of the Division of Global Affairs at Rutgers University-Newark.
 

Reuel, Marc Gerecht. A ROGUE INTELLIGENT STATE? European Outlook, April 2007. n.p. Full text available from publisher's website

Vladimir Putin's Russia is a new phenomenon in Europe: a state defined and dominated by former and active-duty security and intelligence officers. Not even fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, or the Soviet Union--all undoubtedly much worse creations than Russia--were as top-heavy with intelligence talent. What does this mean for Russia and for us? Are we destined to see a post-Communist Russia that aggressively uses assassination and economic blackmail as essential tools of statecraft? Does a policy of engagement, which we have been practicing somewhat energetically since September 2001, now make sense? Reuel Marc Gerecht is a resident fellow at AEI.
 

Bremmer, Ian; Charap, Samuel. THE SILOVIKI IN PUTIN'S RUSSIA: WHO THEY ARE AND WHAT THEY WANT. The Washington Quarterly, Spring 2007. pp. 107-122. Full text available from publisher's website

There is a new reality on the global scene: a Russian foreign policy that is proactive and strategic. For the United States and Europe to develop effective strategies to cope with whatever kind of Russia there may be and to avoid more of the ineffective tactical policy adjustments that have preoccupied the West in dealing with Russia of late, they will need to better understand what is motivating Russian foreign and security strategies, what that implies for the next decade, and what kinds of Western strategies will best secure transatlantic interests…. Celeste A. Wallander is a visiting associate professor in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Aras, Bulent; Ozbay, Fatih . DANCES WITH WOLVES: RUSSIA, IRAN AND THE NUCLEAR ISSUE. Middle East Policy, Winter 2006. pp. 132-147. Full text available via ProQuest

The Iran-Iraq War, combined with escalating tension with the United States, paved the way in Iranian security circles to new ideas on obtaining nuclear weapons to defend Iran in a hostile regional and international environment. Russian experts spent an initial three months at the site planning how to finish the nuclear plant and placing new reactors in it. Dr. Aras is an associate professor at Isik University in Turkey. Dr. Ozbay is an assistant professor at Nijniy Novgorod University in Russia.
 

Trenin, Dmitri. RUSSIA LEAVES THE WEST. Foreign Affairs, July/August 2006. pp. 87. Full text available via ProQuest

The Kremlin's new approach to foreign policy assumes that as a big country, Russia is essentially friendless; no great power wants a strong Russia, which would be a formidable competitor, and many want a weak Russia that they could exploit and manipulate. Accordingly, Russia has a choice between accepting subservience and reasserting its status as a great power, thereby claiming its rightful place in the world alongside the United States and China rather than settling for the company of Brazil and India. The United States and Europe can protest this change in Russia's foreign policy all they want, but it will not make any difference.

Bremmer, Ian; Charap, Samuel. THE SILOVIKI IN PUTIN'S RUSSIA: WHO THEY ARE AND WHAT THEY WANT. The Washington Quarterly, Winter 2006/2007. pp. 83-92. Full text available from publisher's website

Little is known about the siloviki, commonly but misleadingly described as a group of current and former intelligence officers from Putin's hometown of St. Petersburg. Yet, its members, interests, relationships, and influence are helping shape Russia as its 2008 presidential elections approach. Ian Bremmer is a senior fellow at the World Policy Institute, Samuel Charap is a doctoral candidate in political science at St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford.