Carnegie Moscow Center
In his first 100 days in office, Ukrainian President Yanukovych has set a positive new tone in his country's relations with Russia and reaffirmed Ukraine’s strategic orientation towards Europe.
The Kremlin’s new strategy of “conservative modernization,” which emphasizes economic diversification and strengthening of the rule of law, cannot initiate any significant change, since the obstacles to modernization are endemic to the system itself.
Russia’s foreign policy should stop covering up the country’s diminishing status with aggressive rhetoric against the West and, instead, focus on attracting external resources for modernization.
Neither the expansion of NATO—even if Russia is added—nor the European security pact proposed by Medvedev alone are capable of uniting Europe. What is needed is the creation of a common security zone encompassing all of these states in which war and the use of armed forces would be abolished.
Anatoly Dobrynin held the key post of Soviet ambassador to Washington for a record twenty-four years. He can take a lot of credit for the fact that the Cold War remained “cold.”
In spite of the recent suicide bombings in the Moscow metro, the government is unlikely to institute any major changes that will significantly enhance Russia’s security, and the next few years may actually see an intensification of terrorist activity in Russia.
Given the reset in U.S.–Russian relations, the time is ripe for the United States, Europe, and Russia to devise a security architecture for a new century—one capable of maintaining peace and stability on the European continent throughout the years to come.
While the coastal states of Asia tend to garner the most attention internationally, developments in the continent’s interior can play a major role in the stability and security of Asia as a whole.
While Russian leaders support the idea of a world free of nuclear weapons in theory, the Russian security community is still committed to the principle of nuclear deterrence.
A treaty to replace the expired START agreement is an essential step not only toward global nuclear disarmament, but also toward managing the risks associated with Russia's nuclear arsenal, which still poses the single greatest existential threat to the United States.