Center for Citizen Initiatives

Bringing Russian and American citizens together in Peace since 1983.

Are the Germans Consolidating Behind an Intention to Drop Sanctions?

Friends, could German people be consolidating behind dropping sanctions? Certainly the sanctions are hurting not only Russia’s economy but all of Europe’s. The French are requesting the same, the Italians the same.

How do we Americans feel about squeezing the economies of other countries and forcing others to “shun” another nation of people, Russia?

Does this reflect how we want our children to act on their playgrounds, our sons and daughters to treat other groups in their universities? Are these the tactics we use in interactions among business competitors? How can we justify nation-to-nation behaviors that we wouldn’t permit among our families, friends, colleagues and business partners?

It’s time for us all to start asking ourselves these tough questions ….

Two related articles translated from a German publication follow.

— Sharon

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Lowering Nuclear Risks: An Interview With Former Defense Secretary William Perry

Arms Control Association

January/February 2016

Interviewed by Daniel Horner and Kingston Reif

William Perry is the Michael and Barbara Berberian professor emeritus at Stanford University and a senior fellow at the university’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. He was secretary of defense from 1994 to 1997, having previously served as deputy secretary of defense and undersecretary of defense for research and engineering. He is the author of My Journey at the Nuclear Brink (2015).Perry spoke by telephone with Arms Control Todayon December 8, 2015.Much of the conversation focused on the current impasse in U.S.-Russian relations and the nuclear weapons programs in those two countries.

The interview was transcribed by Elizabeth Philipp. It has been edited for clarity.   [Continue Reading]

Russia’s New “Gulag Museum” – Facing the Past

Sharon Tennison

Gulag Museum 1
The stark Gulag Museum in Moscow

…. A drizzly gray day in Moscow …. patches of brownish snow and ice still on sidewalks ….

We arrived at the new “Gulag Museum,” a grim building which had been denuded of traditional Russian plaster, paint or any effort to make it look hospitable. External bare bricks left to the elements––rain, snow, ice, freezing winds––not unlike millions of inhabitants of the former gulags. The harsh exterior had apparently been deemed appropriate for this national museum which presents in detail the grim facts behind the Soviet Union’s infamous and heretofore little acknowledged years. The earliest gulags opened in 1918, and the last closed in 1953.

Waiting for us at the gray entrance was Alexei Pankin, a Moscow friend from the 1990s who has had experience in every form of Soviet and Russian journalism from the late 80s forward.

Since 1983 I had wondered if it would ever happen that Russians would be far enough removed from this nationwide horror to open up the wounds of their tragic Soviet past.   [Continue Reading]

Join Fellow Citizen Diplomats on Our June Russia Trip

volgograd train 2015June 15- 30, 2016, I will lead a group of forward-thinking, informal citizen diplomats to Moscow, Krasnodar, St. Petersburg and the newly rejoined Crimea (Yalta, Simferopol, and Sevastopol). Our chief objective will be to get a realistic understanding of Russia today, from students at their universities to policy makers in their offices. We will engage in informal discussions with Russian businessmen and women, NGO organizers, physicians, educators, working journalists and families in their homes. Dividing up in groups of four Americans each day, we will have different experiences which will later develop into a composite picture of what collectively we have learned.

This will be no ordinary trip. We will catch metros and taxis and forego tourist buses with tour guides. We will try to squeeze in a few cultural activities. I wouldn’t want you to miss the truly exceptional palaces and landmarks, like the Yalta palace where Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin met to divide up the spoils of WWII. It is lovely beyond imagination. The place reeks of history! If you want more cultural activities, local professional guides can be arranged. And you can veer off by yourself from the planned meetings as you wish.

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President’s Report – April 2016

sharon-at-podiumDear Community of CCI Friends,

Following the February 2016 trip to St. Petersburg, Moscow and Volgograd, I took time out to restore my energy systems––they were near depleted from the past year of travel and 70-hour work weeks. Next was to re-examine how to best use CCI’s resources in the coming months. And last, to determine what was behind my totally unexpected and bizarre “pick-up” and detainment during the Volgograd Rotary meeting on February 18th––and to assure my Visa status for future travel in Russia.

In this April 2016 President’s Report, I want to share with you the extreme seriousness of the current situation between Washington and Moscow. It has been an extraordinarily dangerous game of international wits and high stakes since the beginnings of the Maidan protests in 2014. Yet U.S.mainstream media have provided little coverage of the grave standoff between the two nuclear Superpowers.   [Continue Reading]

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