Center for Citizen Initiatives

Bringing Russian and American citizens together in Peace since 1983.

Initial Impressions of Russia

Dear Friends of CCI,

Mike Metz has sent another contribution to our foto-journals. He covers our entrance into Moscow and first days there. Experience his initial impressions of Russia along with us.

Sharon (signature)
Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

Coming out of a shiny new airport into the Moscow air one is hit with a Times Square-size digital billboard for Hyundai. The city is wealthy and clean, with wide boulevards, new shiny cars, and the same McDonalds, KFC, and Louis Vuitton shops as London, Beijing, or New York.

Our first session is with an American businessman, been here 20 years, came over with a large US company in the heydays of the nineties when fortunes were to be made. Had much to say about Putin, Trump, the sanctions, the Russian economy, but what struck me was when he said of US-Russian relations, “I think it always helps to try and understand what’s in the other fellow’s mind.”

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Observations of Moscow

The following letter was written by Sylvia Demarest, a trial lawyer from Dallas, Texas.  Sylvia is one of the travelers on CCI’s current AMMR (Americans Meet Mainstream Russians) delegation.

Sharon (signature)
Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

Dear Friends:

I wanted to take some time to report a few of my  impressions of Moscow and today’s Russia over the last few days.  I was in Russia in 1988 as part of a legal group before the collapse of the Soviet Union.  I have been looking forward to seeing what has changed in the country over the last 30 years.

Remember,  the Russian Federation was established in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union.  Eastern Europe broke free and the Russian economy collapsed into depression under the “shock therapy” the US supported under Yeltsin.   The goal was the end of communism and state ownership of business and resources.  Over the next 9 years, Russia’s resources and businesses were gobbled/stolen? up by the “Oligarchs”, often with US support.  In 1998 a financial crisis resulted in the collapse of the ruble and a default on Russia’s debt.   In March of 2000, V.V. Putin became President of the Russian Federation.  Eighteen years ago, Russia was flat on it’s back, in debt, poor, demoralized, its economy and infrastructure  degraded or destroyed.   Life expectancy had collapsed, millions had died, as Russia went through the greatest depression of the 20th Century in a country not at war.

I landed at Domodedovo airport on August 31st at around 2:40 pm.  I was traveling alone.   I had no idea how hard it would be to get through immigration, find my bags, find a cab and get to my hotel.   The whole process turned out to be quick and very simple.  A polite, well-dressed, English-speaking representative of a cab company took me under his wing, arranged a cab for me, took my bags and walked me to the cab. He gave instructions to the cab driver,  loaded my bags, and shook my hand and said goodbye!  You do not get treated like this in New York!!

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CCI Takes off for 10 Russian Regions

Dear CCI friends,

Today, 25 CCI travelers will depart the U.S. for Moscow and nine different regions across Russia. A videographer will capture footage for YouTube to describe our ventures.

The Press Release below was created at the request of our regional coordinators to give to universities so that we can talk with classes of students.  It also went to regional mayors, civic clubs and the media. It sounds like our subgroups of two to four Americans will be kept quite busy during these regional visits. Their chief tasks are to interact with many Russians, to share ideas about how to rebuild connections between our countries, to learn how their regions and private sectors are developing, how Russians are faring under sanctions, to share the challenges of building and maintaining democracies and learn how they are viewing international relations today. Lastly, but most importantly, they will encourage cooperation and the development of bi-country projects to create goodwill and understanding between our two peoples.

Since the Press Release below covers CCI’s agenda for 2019, we felt it would be interesting to you. Scan it to see if you can participate in one of our programs, each of which we ran successfully during the first Cold War.

Would you like to start 2019 by traveling to Russia for a magnificent New Year’s celebration coupled with Citizen Diplomacy or with new bi-country projects and programs? Let us know what is exciting to you!  Share this with others and suggest they go to our website, ccisf.org, to subscribe to our CCI email list.

Wish us well with this next venture! Keep up with us through our Foto-Journal pages during the trip!

Sharon (signature)
Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

The Center for Citizen Initiatives (CCI) Restarts Citizen Diplomacy Programs with Russia

Our Future is too important to leave up to short-term policy makers

August 31-Sept 15, 2018, American citizen diplomats travel to 10 Russian regions
from Moscow to Irkutsk (15 Russian cities and towns)

They will learn of local Russians’ histories, points of view and simultaneously create friendships and goodwill between each other. The message will be clear that diplomacy is far more sustainable and profitable than standoffs, political posturing and war.

CCI, America’s preeminent non-governmental, nonprofit organization of the 1980s, 90s, 2000s, is resuming its classic programs to reduce tensions, rumors and propaganda between the U.S. and Russia during today’s extremely dangerous political climate.

Programs Planned F0r 2019

Americans Meet Mainstream Russians (AMMR)
American delegations of 25 persons first go to Moscow, then to multiple Russian cities in micro-groups of two to four persons. There they are hosted by Russian Rotarians or former CCI program participants. The Americans meet local people, discuss many topics and create future options for staying in touch. Next, they reconvene in St. Petersburg for a “Report Out” to share information about the experiences and learnings of their micro-groups. Findings are then released to the public through Foto-journals, YouTube and Internet articles. (AMMR is an updated version of CCI’s original citizen diplomacy program which lasted for 8 years and took some 2,000 Americans to the USSR before Soviet people were allowed to travel abroad).

Russians Meet Mainstream Americans (RMMA)
Russian delegations of 20 persons fly to the U.S. then split into five micro-groups of four persons. Each micro-group travels on a different loop of cities throughout the U.S. where they are hosted by Rotarians, Kiwanians and other interested Americans. Local committees house the Russians in American homes. They have speaking engagements in city halls, universities, libraries, churches, synagogues and large informal home events. Local organizers create press and TV opportunities and, in general, provide options for the two peoples to mix and mingle broadly. (RMMA is an updated version of CCI’s SMMA program which, thanks to a Gorbachev intervention, allowed CCI to bring non-communist party members from the USSR to 264 American cities in 1988 and 1989).

Russian-American Exchanges & Projects (RAEP)
CCI initiated numerous first-ever projects beginning in the 1980s, including month-long internships for Russian entrepreneurs to intern in successful American businesses parallel to those they were trying to start in Russia. We are working on new programs to begin in 2019–stay tuned!

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“Gorky Park, Golden Park” Responses

Dear CCI Friends!

Regarding my printing of the “Gorky Park/Golden Gate Park” article I sent out by Harvard Professor Matthew Bunn, many of you have really ‘raked me over the coals’ (as my Kentucky father would say)!  I have not previously had so much protest to an article as this one … my first admonishment came from Professor Steve Cohen.

Thank you for caring about the truth … and thank you for making me realize that I am getting so accustomed to reading these verbiages such as… “Putin is a thug,” “Putin meddles in our elections,” “when Putin invaded Georgia,” “when Russia invaded Crimea,” … by people whom I know KNOW BETTER, that I don’t even stop to question it.  The remainder of Bunn’s article was great and may have scored high by many who read it!  But he, like others, panders to mainstream newspapers and magazines by using these types of cliches to get more important points in print which otherwise won’t ever be known.

Where have we come to in our country if we feel it necessary to tell a lie in order to get a piece of truth out into the public forum?

And where have I come to that I ignore it and give the writer a pass, knowing that he is trying to bring forth an idea that may jolt others and make them think seriously about issues that need to be exposed?

I personally have never used an untruth to deliver a truth … but I have printed those who have.  You have my word, I won’t do it again… unless I immediately disclose that “this false information is here to expose a truth that otherwise would not be circulated.”

Thanks for taking the time to get in touch with me. You have made me a more conscientious American.

http://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/401172-in-gorky-park-with-nuclear-worries

Sharon (signature)
Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

Cohen on: Sanction Mania vs. Russia

Friends,

Steve Cohen hits the mark again!  Pure logic … and razor-sharp memory which few seem to have these days.  Please forward to your friends, colleagues and family.

Sharon (signature)
Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

The Nation
August 15, 2018

Sanction Mania vs. Russia

For nearly 100 years, Russia has been under US sanctions, often to the detriment of American national security.

By Stephen F. Cohen

(Audio available here.)

Stephen F. Cohen, professor emeritus of Russian studies and politics at NYU and Princeton, and John Batchelor continue their (usually) weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War. Previous installments, now in their fifth year, are at TheNation.com.

Cohen begins by putting the current bipartisan Senate campaign to impose new, “crushing” sanctions on Russia in historical context. Broadly understood, sanctions have been part of US policy toward Russia for much of the past 100 years. During the Russian civil war of 1918–20, President Woodrow Wilson sent American troops to fight against the emerging Soviet government. Though the “reds” were clearly the established government of Soviet Russia by 1921, Washington continued to deny the USSR diplomatic recognition until President Franklin D. Roosevelt established formal relations in 1933. During much of the 40-year Cold War, the United States imposed various sanctions on its superpower rival, mainly related to technological and military exports, along with periodic expulsions of diplomats and “spies” on both sides.

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