Center for Citizen Initiatives

Bringing Russian and American citizens together in Peace since 1983.

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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!

Join Us! Put Meaning into your Life! Make our Planet a Safer Place for the Next Generation!

Come to Russia with CCI via “Foto/Diaries”!

Dear Friends,

We are a month away from CCI’s next citizen-diplomacy “signature” trip to Russia. It departs August 30. We believe in more contact, not less … especially when both sides have weapons of mass destruction aimed at each other. While official levels are having very little interaction, it behooves us as citizens to have as much contact as possible on the ground––we need to discuss the deepest of issues between us and then share this information as widely as possible.

We plan to bring you along with us by daily emails––including ‘Foto/Diaries’ of what we are experiencing across Russia, hoping you will pass along this information to your friends, colleagues, families and Congress members. A videographer will accompany us for each segment of travel. A range of YouTube videos will be available shortly after we return home.

Our primary objective in Moscow is to hear from and question eight expert presenters: President Mikhail Gorbachev, Vladimir Pozner, Vladimir Kozin, Andrey Kortunov, Chris Weafer, Dmitry Babich and a couple more that are yet to be confirmed. We will video them all to share with you.  We will see traditional sites before leaving the capital city.

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The Making of the Enemy

Dear CCI Friends,

It is 4 am. I awakened this morning from jet lag in a gated community of private homes on the West Coast.

Swirling around in my mind was, “The Making of the Enemy,” a phrase of past decades. It has never seemed more relevant to me than now.

I had watched the gradual making of “Russia as the enemy” since 2001, although I didn’t register the significance of what I was seeing at the time. I just thought that George Bush, et al, needed to be educated regarding Russia. At first it was mild criticism, then it was blaming, then rejection, demeaning and demonizing along with distancing, ignoring and acting as if Russia didn’t matter … as if Russia and Russians have no significance at all. Strange since it’s the largest country in the world and laden with subsoil riches.

Last evening, an event celebrating the graduation of my grandson was held in their spacious family home in Oregon. Teenagers and friends in their 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and 70’s gathered to acknowledge Sean, a straight A student.

In the clatter of happy voices, one could hardly hear people next to oneself. I chose a sofa on the edge of the room where guests next to me turned out to be local lawyers. Someone mentioned that I had just returned from Russia last night. The lawyer nearest me immediately spouted with drawn face, “What about the disturbances at the World Cup competitions underway?” [Continue Reading]

More on CCI’s May 2017 Trip to Russia

Dear Friends,

Our first email with “IContact” must have hit a chord with you. I’ve not had so many responses to a message in years. Thanks for your well wishing. A lot of you are interested in the health practices. I’ll put what I’m using in print soon and get back to you.

Others requested more info about the May 2017 trip to Russia. CCI’s site (ccisf.org) covers quite a bit already. My June 4 article gave generalities. Note that investigative journalist, Rick Sterling, one of our terrific travelers, posted an excellent report enumerating the myths and the reality we found on ground in Russia. Further, traveler David Swanson, WorldBeyondWar’s prolific writer, posted nearly a dozen articles during the his time with us in Russia. His URLs are available on CCI’s site. Please check them out!

I want to reiterate the importance of accomplishing this most unusual trip. It was a unique undertaking that had never before been tried. Other trips to Russia over the decades have been primarily cultural in focus, with a few concentrated on science, medicine, agriculture, NGOs, etc. Business visas were offered to those involved in business.

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Observations and Impressions from Russia

GlobalResearch
May 31, 2017

Observations and Impressions from Russia

By Rick Sterling

Introduction

For over two weeks this May, a delegation of 30 Americans visited seven regions and ten cities across Russia.  Organized by Sharon Tennison of Center for Citizen Initiatives, the entire group began in Moscow with several days of meetings and visits, then broke into smaller groups going to cities including Volgograd, Kazan (Tatarstan), Krasnodar (near Black Sea), Novosibirsk (Siberia), Yekaterinburg and the Crimean cities Simferopol, Yalta and Sevastopol.  After these regional visits, delegates regrouped in St Petersburg to share their experiences. Following is an informal review with conclusions based on my observations in Kazan and what I heard from others.

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