Word: russianizing
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Despite the bluster, there is room to maneuver. One option would be for the U.S. to collaborate with Russia on missile defense. Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn told Congress last month that the Pentagon is looking at Russian radar systems to help monitor Iranian missile tests. A U.S.-Russian partnership, he added, would signal to members of Iran's government "that they will face a concerted international front should they proceed down that path...
Many Kremlinologists in Washington say the meeting with Obama may be Medvedev's moment. The Russian President has long been seen as a cipher for Putin, his predecessor and patron. But some analysts think that the U.S. President's prestige may rub off on his Russian counterpart. There is a chance that Medvedev, 43, might stand for something new. He is the first of Russia's modern leaders never to have served as an official in the Soviet Union and has been showing some signs of independence from his former boss. "He's trying to carve out a space...
...Some Russians opposed to Putin believe a pointed display of respect by Obama could boost Medvedev. That, they say, would make it easier for the Russian President to distance himself from Putin's ironfisted policies. It may, of course, be wishful thinking to believe that Medvedev can ever really be his own man, much less that he can put aside the suspicion of decades and forge a real partnership with the U.S. But it's worth a try. For this truth hasn't changed since the end of the Cold War: when Russia and the U.S. don't get along...
...self-confidence. Not content with presiding over the economic boom, then President (now Prime Minister) Vladimir Putin vowed to restore his country's great power status. Talk about a partnership with the West gave way to belligerent statements about a new Cold War. In the summer of 2008, Russian tanks trundled into Georgia. In early 2009, a dispute with neighboring Ukraine led Russia to cut off gas flows, leaving people in some European Union countries freezing and factories idle...
Most Europeans want to see Russia stable and well-off. But they also believe that the economic crisis might bring opportunities for a political rapprochement. Some hope that the recession might just make the Russian leadership a little more humble or at least trigger reforms that would make it easier for the E.U. to strengthen trade and investment links...