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News and Events |
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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? |
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| 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, including cooperation on Afghanistan and Iran, future developments in Georgia and Ukraine, and discussions of a new European security system inclusive of Russia. According to Trenin, “We are moving toward a more mature relationship between the United States and Russia, maybe for the first time since the end of the Soviet Union.” Summary on the Carnegie Endowment's site |
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| | Blast in Pune Will Not Get in the Way of Mending Relations between India and Pakistan |
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| | The bomb blast in the Indian city of Pune and the media response show that there is still a lot of opposition in India to normalizing relations with Pakistan. But in the view of Carnegie Moscow Center expert Peter Topychkanov, the external situation leaves these opponents little chance of success. “Just when talks were set to resume between New Delhi and Islamabad, a bomb blast in the western Indian town of Pune killed 9 people and injured 57. The time and place of the explosion were not chosen by chance. What is significant is not even so much that the chosen target was a cafe popular among foreigners, but that Pune is a city where political organizations based on religious and nationalist platforms are strong. Following the blast, these organizations called for an end to preparations for resuming Indian-Pakistani talks.” |
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| | Magomedsalam Magomedov Becomes President of Dagestan |
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| | Magomedsalam Magomedov, the new president of Dagestan in Russia’s North Caucasus, is a compromise figure selected to help calm the region, according to Carnegie Moscow Center expert Alexey Malashenko. “Magomedov follows the footsteps of his father, Magomedali Magomedov, first and foremost because he is likely to be reasonably well accepted by most people in Dagestan. And while future attempts to sack a few officials and mayors here and there will likely arouse local ire, they will probably not cause ripples on a republic-wide scale.” |
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| | The Internal Political Situation in Kyrgyzstan |
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| | The Tulip Revolution did not mark the emergence of democracy in Kyrgyzstan. To the contrary, since 2005, limits on political rights and freedoms and the strengthening of President Kurmanbek Bakiev’s family rule have only increased, according to participants in a roundtable on the internal political situation in Kyrgyzstan held at the Carnegie Moscow Center on February 9, 2010. Speakers representing Kyrgyz opposition parties included: Roza Otunbaeva, leader of the Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan faction in the Jogorku Kenesh (Kyrgyz parliament), Irina Karamushkina, a member of the Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan faction in the Jogorku Kenesh, and Gulnara Dzhurabaeva, coordinator for NGO relations of the Ata Meken Socialist Party. |
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| | The Second Round of Presidential Elections in Ukraine |
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| | The apparent triumph of Viktor Yanukovich in the second round of Ukrainian presidential elections held February 7 should not be interpreted as the end of that country’s democratic experiment, argues Carnegie Moscow Center expert Nikolay Petrov. “The presidential elections in Ukraine brought to a close an important stage in the country's political development,” Petrov said. “However, the presidency of Viktor Yanukovich is by no means a return to the days of former president Leonid Kuchma and does not represent a definitive ‘farewell’ to the ‘Orange Revolution’ that led to the ouster of Yanukovich (then Kuchma’s chosen successor) in 2004. The significance of that ‘revolution’ derives not from the specific personalities in power, but rather from how the Ukrainian political system is constructed, from its adherence to pluralism, its competitiveness, and its transparency.” |
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| | Film by Alexey Malashenko and Anton Malashenko “The People of the Caucasus Speak about Islam” |
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| A new documentary film by Alexey Malashenko “The People of the Caucasus Speak about Islam” – presenting footage from roundtable discussions organized as part of the Russian Civic Chamber’s Peace for the Caucasus project in various cities in Dagestan, including Makhachkala, Buynaksk, Derbent and Khasavyurt – was premiered at the Carnegie Moscow Center. The debates were open to the general public and were uncensored.
Film “The People of the Caucasus Speak about Islam” (in Russian) |
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| | First Anniversary of Patriarch Kirill’s Enthronement |
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| | A year after his enthronement, Patriarch Kirill has reenergized the Russian Orthodox Church, shored up his own support base and laid the foundations for a qualitatively new – if politically controversial – role for the Church in the state and society, according to the Carnegie Moscow Center’s Alexey Malashenko. “What has Kirill achieved in his first year as patriarch? First, he has positioned himself as a reformer and pragmatist, aware that, in its current state, the Russian Orthodox Church could lose its influence in society. Action is his slogan. Second, he has set a policy of missionary work within the Church itself, that is to say, getting people who have an Orthodox background but who are distant from the Church today to return to the Orthodox fold. He is getting the Church increasingly involved in different areas of public life, trying to bring it closer to lay people by making it a part of secular life. He has put particular emphasis on work among young people, without whom the Church has no future.” |
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| | Barack Obama Delivered His First State of the Union Address to Congress |
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| | “Where there’s a will, there’s a way”: That could be the slogan of president Obama’s second year in office, said economist and Carnegie Moscow Center expert Sergei Aleksashenko following Barack Obama’s first State of the Union Address to the U.S. Congress. “Obama is not feeding anyone illusions or trying to calm people down by saying that the crisis has passed. He admitted that the United States is once again undergoing a test of its stability, and he expressed his hope that, under his leadership, the nation will pass that test. His address clearly demonstrates that he is trying to resolve the United States’ most pressing problems, including unemployment, heath care, and the budget deficit. But he’s also talking about ‘American modernization,’ about the need to maintain American leadership in technology and clean energy, the need to increase and support exports, to support Americans’ efforts to get an education.” |
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| | Russia’s Future: Nation or Civilization? |
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| | Russia’s current ruling elite understands the threat posed by an ethnic project of nation-building and, therefore, seeks to adhere to a supranational concept of Russia as a civilization, argues political scientist Igor Zevelyov. In a seminar at the Carnegie Moscow Center on January 27, 2010, discussing his recent article in Russia in Global Affairs, “Russia’s Future: Nation or Civilization?”, Zevelyov suggested that Russians have what might be called an immature ethic identity, which was one of the reasons why the Soviet Union collapsed without bloodshed. |
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