Carnegie Moscow Center
The vision is grand, the reality less so. Russia's foreign policy has been merely assertive and reactive up till now. Will the new President manage something more constructive?
In The Wall Street Journal, Carnegie Moscow Center's Dmitri Trenin comments on the recent election of Dmitry Medvedev as Russia’s next president. “Mr. Medvedev's arrival at the Kremlin is billed as the continuation of the Putin course,” he writes.
In a Newsweek article, Carnegie’s Dmitri Trenin analyzes the legacy of Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Putin's critics argue he killed the seeds planted in the Gorbachev years and nurtured in the Yeltsin era—an argument that should not be trivialized,” he writes.
America’s relationship with the world is in disrepair. Anger, resentment, and fear have replaced the respect the United States once enjoyed. The next U.S. president should improve relations with Syria, and the mullahs in Tehran may be willing to shelve their nuclear plans permanently in exchange for a little face time with the United States.
European, American and Russian diplomats continue to work against the December deadline for Kosovo’s pre-announced unilateral declaration of independence (UDI). However, few hope for an agreement. Belgrade and Pristina have not budged. Washington and its major allies are adamant that Kosovo can not be held indefinitely in the protectorate limbo and must be given independence.
Russia’s economic boom of recent years has placed it firmly back amongst the world’s most powerful nations and the nation goes to the polls on December 2 to elect the State Duma. The result appears almost inevitable-a landslide victory for the Putin-supported United Russia party and a continuation of the ‘Putin plan’. What does this mean for Russia and for the international community?
For decades NATO-related issues were a key focus of Russian foreign policy. After years of setbacks and stalled progress, the NATO-Russia relationship may have finally reached a turning point. Current developments indicate that despite major difficulties during the 1990s, icy relations are beginning to thaw.
The US and its European allies continue to insist that Kosovo cannot be held indefinitely in the protectorate limbo and must be given independence. Russia maintains that for the solution to be viable, it must rest on the consent of both parties to the conflict. It is difficult to see how a few more rounds of shuttle diplomacy between Belgrade and Pristina – and slightly heavier lobbying in both places – would break the current impasse. The situation does not bode well for Kosovo and Serbia, the Balkans more broadly and the ‘frozen conflicts' in Transdniestria, Abkhazia or South Ossetia.
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.
