Reconfiguration, Not Just a Reset. Russia’s Interests in Relations with the United States of America

Report for the meeting of the Russian-U.S. section of the Valdai International Discussion Club (Moscow, June 2009) by Sergei Karaganov, Dmitry Suslov and Timofei Bordachev was published by RIA Novosti.

The idea for this report originated during preparations for the Russian-American section of the "Valdai" International Discussion Club meetings, a joint RIA Novosti and Council on Foreign and Defense Policy (CFDP) initiative. The Valdai Club is a series of meetings held regularly between specialists on Russia, prominent academics and journalists from all over the world, and their Russian colleagues representing a wide spectrum of the Russian political elite.

This report aims to compel the Russian political elite to have a systematic discussion over their requirements from the relations with the U.S. and ways to normalize those relations, as well as to use an appraisal of mutual interests as the basis for a dialogue with the American expert community about the future of Russian-American relations.

Even before its official presentation in the run up to the July meeting of the Presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama, the report was submitted to the Government officials and experts.

"Comparative analysis of interests is by no means the only and absolute key to developing an adequate policy. Yet without it, reasonable policy proves to be impossible", the authors believe.

 

Introduction by Sergei Karaganov

 

Table of contents:

Introduction by the Executive Editor

1. New Global Context

2. Russia and the United States in the Modern World

3. Russian - U.S. Relations

4. A Window of Opportunity

5. Interests of Russia and the United States

6. What to Do with the Barack Obama's Proposal?

7. The "Big Deal"

8. Economic Cooperation

Appendix: Comparing Russian and U.S. Interests