Valdai Club | Top Russian news and analysis online

Opinions

	Permafrost in Russia Reinhard Krumm 15:33 03/02/2010 A new thaw in the Kremlin: President Medvedev wants to rebuild the country contrary to the policy of Putin and the power of tradition.
	Medvedev, Obama should Beware of the START Pitfalls Ariel Cohen 12:15 01/02/2010 Washington and Moscow will restart talks with Washington on a new arms control treaty on Monday February 1. START was one of the very few foreign policy issued mentioned by President Obama in his State of the Union Address on January 27th.
	The U.S.-Russian reset – one year later Angela Stent 13:13 29/01/2010 It has been a year since President Obama came into office and six months since the summit in Moscow. The atmospherics in the US-Russian relationship have improved over the last year.
	Obama is by no means perfect, but he represents an enormous improvement over Bush Marshall Goldman 14:04 20/01/2010 A year since the official inauguration of 44th U.S. President Barak Obama.
	Reset the OSCE Alexander Rahr 12:08 18/01/2010 The year of 2010 will open a new chapter in the post-Cold-War history. As the first post-soviet state Kazakhstan will assume the chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and try to promote it to its previous rank of a main security organization in Europe.
	Kremlin two-step: modernize or marginalize Dmitri Trenin 10:41 14/01/2010 The real issue is not whether the noises that Putin and Medvedev make suggest real divergence, and a potential for rivalry, but whether there is daylight at the end of the tandem. Or, to put it differently, whether they choose modernization or marginalization.
	A Nonstarter on Arms Control Ariel Cohen 09:50 13/01/2010 The Obama administration has failed to complete the negotiation of a treaty to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start), which expired on Dec. 5. The two superpowers are now in unchartered waters.
	Missing in Translation Piotr Dutkiewicz 14:04 25/12/2009 Of late, a palette consisting only of black and white has seemed sufficient to paint a picture of Russia. A sketch of the dominant Western (and recently, increasingly Russian) conceptualization of the last two decades of the country’s history looks something like this: The democrat Boris Yeltsin introduced a market system and erected the foundation of a Western model of democracy.
	Without Ideology or Order Timofei Bordachyov 13:47 25/12/2009 The greatest achievement in Russian foreign policy over the past 20 years has been the renunciation of messianism as Russia abandoned attempts to impose its own model of social relations on other countries.
	Leszek Miller: daily Tribuna closed, a bad sign for Polish media market 13:09 17/12/2009 This week operations at the Polish left-wing daily newspaper Tribuna were suspended and its journalists sent on an extended leave.
	The prospects for establishing a regional security organization in the Middle East 10:14 17/12/2009 The situation in Iraq and the rapid escalation of “conflict potential” in regions around the Middle East considerably complicate the search for a “historical compromise” between Israel and the Arab states. (By Andrei Baklanov, Head of the International Affairs Department of the Federation Council of the Russian Federal Assembly)
	Water resources in the Middle East 12:19 16/12/2009 The main aspect of the water problem in the Middle East is the transboundary nature of water sources. (By By Aydar R. Aganin, Director of Rusya al-Yaum News Channel)
	Salafi Jihadist groups in Gaza Strip as instrument of restoring regional balance 10:18 16/12/2009 Starting from the mid-2000s in the Gaza Strip, Islamist groups began to show political activity that used the Al Qaida combination in their names. (By Alexander Ignatenko, President of the Institute on Religion and Policy)
	Proposals from the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on the New European Security Treaty: Origins and Prospects 13:06 15/12/2009 Statement by Mr. Alexander GRUSHKO, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation
	Palestinian-Israeli deadlock versus talks challenges 10:37 15/12/2009 The Palestinian and Israeli leaderships feel more comfortable with the existing problems than with a drastic adjustment of their positions. (By Prof. Irina Zvyagelskaya, vice-president of the Center for Strategic and Political Studies)