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Obama’s Nuclear Agenda: A View from Washington
Two imperatives define Barack Obama’s nuclear agenda. On the one hand he called for a world free of nuclear weapons (nuclear zero). On the other hand, Obama believes that the U.S. needs credible nuclear deterrence. The balance between the two is uneasy, according to Deepti Choubey, deputy director of the Nuclear Policy program of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Speaking at the Carnegie Moscow Center on March 4, 2010, Choubey described the key issues on the U.S. president’s nuclear agenda, which include the START I follow-on treaty, the Nuclear Posture Review, the NPT Review Conference and the CTBT.
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Boris Nemtsov at Carnegie. Russia Update: An Opposition View
Boris Nemtsov, former deputy prime minister of Russia, member of the Solidarity democratic movement, and a prominent Kremlin opposition leader, spoke at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in June 2009 about the state of democracy in Russia, following the spring 2009 mayoral elections. He returned nine months later to provide an updated assessment of the latest domestic political developments in Russia. In June, Nemtsov had expressed guarded optimism about Medvedev’s prospects for democratizing Russia’s domestic politics. With little political progress made in the intervening months, Nemtsov now urged international observers to ignore Medvedev’s rhetoric in favor of his actions. In his opinion, the most significant achievements of the Medvedev presidency thus far are the constitutional change which allows prime minister Putin to run for an extended presidential term in 2012; and the recognition of sovereign Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Nemtsov noted an increase in anti-Putin protests across the country, with the largest taking place in Kaliningrad in January.

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The Lack of a Comprehensive Strategy, Not the Taliban, Is the Problem in Afghanistan
The launch of the large-scale Moshtarak military operation in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province on February 13, 2010, may look like further proof of America’s inconsistent policy in that country. Carnegie Moscow Center expert Peter Topychkanov, however, argues that Washington’s approach could at last be gaining some kind of logic. “Throughout 2009, people were waiting to see what the Obama administration’s Afghanistan policy would be. Last year, the White House seemed more to be jumping from one vision to another, from AfPak to the Pakistan Surge. In that context, the news that representatives of the Karzai government, the U.S., NATO, and the UN had met with Taliban representatives in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and the Maldives did not inspire much confidence. Newly revived military operations at the same time suggested that the U.S. and NATO were pursuing a contradictory policy, talking to the Taliban on the one hand and trying to destroy them on the other.”

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Year Two of the Reset: What Can the U.S. Expect from Moscow?
The U.S.-Russian relationship has notably improved since President Obama took office, and the process of the “reset” still continues. On January 21, 2010, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace hosted a discussion with the Carnegie Moscow Center director Dmitri Trenin, who analyzed some of the most crucial areas for the relationship for 2010.

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