Hi Friends of CCI,

Surprise! Our RMMA Russian women have had fascinating receptions as they have traveled across the country discussing issues related to bottom-up U.S.-Russia diplomacy. Some 75 to 100 meetings have left no time to post since Atlanta. We still do not have a spare minute.

Today, Russian Orthodox Easter Eve, our Russian friends leave the San Francisco Bay Area and fly to Washington, D.C. for their last stop. Easter Sunday morning they will be speaking at the Bethesda Unitarian Universalist Church.

On April 9 they will be in Columbia and Annapolis where a number of meetings will occur. On April 10 we will meet with Washington insider Paul Saunders at National Interest to discuss the necessity for bottom-up diplomacy. Next we will meet with Senator Rand Paul’s top people, then have a meeting with Ed and Tatiana Lozanski to try to understand what people inside the Beltway are thinking. We have a number of meetings scheduled with NGO’s, George Mason University students and Congressional offices. As soon as our Russian presenters depart for Russia, you will get an assessment of what we have learned from Dallas, Fort Worth, the Bay Area and Washington.

Our ladies are leaving a trail of goodwill wherever they go!

More to follow,

Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

Highlights from RMMA in the San Francisco Bay Area:

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Hi CCI Followers!

The first delegation of Russians Meet Mainstream Americans! (RMMA-pronounced Rama) is in flight from Atlanta to Dallas. Four Russian women from four different Russian regions met for the first time at the Moscow Airport. They flew to Atlanta where they were picked up by CCI board member Don Chapman and his wife Julie and whisked off to their large, two-story ranch home on acreage at the edge of Newnan. Two families hosted them, the Chapman’s being one of them.

Early the next morning they were at Newnan High School speaking with upper classman students who had no hesitation in asking questions. Don reports that a lively exchange took place: “Our youth aren’t hampered with past stereotypes like the older generation. They are looking toward the future.” From there on, the Chapman van moved from meeting to meeting, day after day.

The Newnan Rotary Club hosted them where a leading Rotarian in the city placed them at different tables to meet with as many Rotarians as possible. Lena Novomeyskaya from Yekaterinburg took Rotary to her city many years ago. That club is stellar (I am an honorary member) and since then Lena has taken Rotary to other Ural mountain cities where the Rotary concept has become solidly ensconced.

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Russians Meet Mainstream Americans! (RMMA-pronounced Rama) will launch on March 20, 2018when a delegation of four enterprising Russians arrive at the Atlanta Airport! To answer the first question usually asked … No, they have nothing to do with the Russian government, except of course that they vote.

Lena Novomeiskaya from Yekaterinburg, Natasha Ivanova from Krasnodar in the south, Tatyana Bukharina from Yalta in Crimea and Elena Ivanova from St. Petersburg will travel to the U.S. as “citizen diplomats.” They come at the invitation of the Center for Citizen Initiatives (CCI) to attend discussion groups (up to three a day) where they will answer questions, share ideas and seek solutions with counterpart American citizens. They will visit five U.S. areas: Atlanta, Dallas, Fort Worth, several cities in the San Francisco Bay Area and Washington D.C. They will live in American homes, help cook meals, be transported in family cars and have hundreds of meetings in public forums, civic clubs, homes of volunteers, state official offices and offices of Congress members.

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