Natylie’s Place
October 14, 2019
Natylie Baldwin

A couple of weeks ago, I conducted an email interview with Nicolai N. Petro, professor of Political Science at the University of Rhode Island, on the state of democracy in today’s Russia, after having read his eye-opening 2018 journal article, “Are We Reading Russia Right?” His full biography is below the interview.

1)  In your 2018 article, “Are We Reading Russia Right?” you attempt to correct some misconceptions many in the west have about the state of democracy in Russia.  You point out, for example, that Russia has a much more diverse media that includes anti-Putin reportage and opinion.  Can you explain for readers a bit more about Russia’s media landscape and what percentage of the media that state TV actually consists of and what the demographics are who consume state TV vs. other types of media?

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Dear  CCI Friends,

America’s Ambassador to Russia is leaving his post. His outgoing message questions America’s foreign policy toward Russia. This comes as a spate of American and European VIP’s have begun speaking out about the U.S.’s demonization of Putin and Russia, and our refusal to use diplomacy and negotiation. At the same time, the U.S. is resorting to sanctions that not only don’t work, but have made Russia more resilient and have taken a toll on our European allies (and their relationships with us). This has strained the relationship between the U.S. and the EU. Thankfully Ambassador Huntsman wasted no time letting his points of view be known.

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CCI Friends,

Another article we need to attend to. The odds are heating up! We need to ask ourselves … are we planning to vote just to get Trump out of office? Will that backfire on us?

Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

The Nation

Unasked Questions about US-Ukrainian Relations

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Dear CCI Followers,

Former St. Petersburg U.S. Consul General John Evans (and former Ambassador to Armenia), has written the most insightful assessment of Vladimir Putin in print to date.

Let’s hope that John Evans’ going public will encourage others in VIP positions to share their experiences to offset the demonizing of Russia and Putin that has occurred in both political parties over the past decade.

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Will Russia Be Driven from the West?

American opponents of readmitting Moscow to the former G8 fail to understand the consequences.

The Nation
By Stephen F. Cohen
September 18, 2019
(Underlines by ST)

(Audio from the John Batchelor show 1 of 2 is available here.  Audio from the John Batchelor show 2 of 2 is available here.)

Two years ago, I asked, “Will Russia Leave the West?”  The world’s largest territorial country—sprawling from its major European city St. Petersburg to its vast Far Eastern territories and long border with China—Russia cannot, of course, depart the West geographically. But it can do so politically, economically, and strategically. Indeed, where Russia belongs, where it should seek its identity, security, and future—in the East or in the West—has divided the nation’s policymakers and intellectual elites for centuries.

In our times, as I also pointed out two years ago, a Russia departed, or driven, from the West would likely mean “a Russia—with its vast territories, immense natural resources, world-class sciences, formidable military and nuclear power, and UN Security Council veto—allied solidly with all the other emerging powers that are not part the US-NATO Western ‘world order’ and even opposed to it. And, of course, it would drive Russia increasingly afar from the West’s liberalizing influences, back toward its more authoritarian traditions.

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