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.
Visiting Moscow and St. Petersburg doesn’t give anyone a comprehensive understanding of this vast country or the Russian people. So next, our large group splits into eight subgroups and flies to far-away regional cities across Russia for four days.
Our travelers will visit Perm, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Krasnodar, Saratov, Yaroslavl, Rostov Veliky, Simferopol, Yalta and Sevastopol. They will learn how local citizens live, work, think, what they value and what their hopes and concerns are. Nights they will sleep in homes, hotels and on trains. They will meet with professional counterparts, journalists, educators, officials and interview university students. Discussions will range from international relations, to leadership of both countries, including which governance they believe is best for Russia and what we think is best for the United States. Finally, we will create ways in which Americans and Russians in each regional city can work together for the future of our endangered planet. We travel not to convince others to adopt our values or ways of life, but to learn from them why they may think differently than we due to their histories. Our overarching goal is to create as much goodwill as possible while we are face-to-face in their cities and homes.
Lastly in St. Petersburg, CCI travelers will reconvene for a day-long “Report Out” to hear and document what each traveler experienced from their Moscow and regional encounters. Following this brainstorm, for the next four days we will meet a wide range of St. Petersburg men, women and youth to have economic and political Q&As … and even some fun! Classical culture and a long canal ride will be relished after completing our discussions and emailing home our findings.
Back to our Foto/Diaries: Buckle up in your armchair and get ready to take an investigative trip around Russia with us!
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Due to the amount of pre-travel tasks yet to be completed, you will get fewer emails from us between now and flight time.
During this interim, I STRONGLY encourage you visit: eastwestaccord.com and use the form there to sign up for updates. This is the American Committee for East-West Accord (ACEWA) on whose Board of Directors I’m privileged to sit. Professor Stephen F. Cohen, the eminent Russian/Soviet/Post-Soviet Russia historian and expert analyst is the primary spokesperson/writer for ACEWA. However, the site also features a range of other excellent investigative journalists and analysts.
PLEASE see the latest: Cohen Debates Max Boot on CNN. It is fabulous! NOT-TO-MISS!!! https://usrussiaaccord.com/stephen-f-cohen-debates-max-boot-on-cnn/
More to follow,
Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives