FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 8, 2005
Contact: Carmen MacDougall, 202/939-2319 or Jennifer Linker, 202/939-2372, jlinker@CarnegieEndowment.org

The U.S.-Russia relationship bears much greater significance for both countries than reflected by their current policy agendas, and there are numerous ways to enhance and capitalize on overlapping interests, according to a new report written by a task force of U.S. and Russian experts and released in Washington, DC today.

The report, “U.S.-Russian Relations: The Case for An Upgrade,” offers an action agenda that could be launched at the upcoming Bratislava Summit with presidents Bush and Putin. It is available in English and Russian and can be downloaded at www.CarnegieEndowment.org/russia.

Recommendations focus primarily on two areas: international security and economic cooperation. A few of the proposed measures include much fuller sharing of intelligence information; material and technical support to better secure Russian borders and vulnerable facilities; and the creation of an advanced status of economic cooperation, such as a bilateral free-trade zone.

In addition to identifying common interests that can be tapped for greater cooperation, the report also suggests ways to overcome points of contention, such as foreign policy towards the former Soviet Union—a problem area vividly illustrated in the recent dispute over presidential elections in Ukraine.

The report represents the first such Russian-American policy proposal in nearly five years. The joint effort was initiated by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, uniquely placed with offices in both Washington and Moscow, and the Polity Foundation, a well-known Moscow think tank. Its co-authors—Carnegie Moscow Center Director Andrew Kuchins, Carnegie Moscow Center Deputy Director Dmitri Trenin, and Polity President Vyacheslav Nikonov—spent the summer and fall of 2004 in consultations with a score of government officials and independent experts in both countries’ capitals. The contributors’ significantly differing viewpoints have merged into a truly bilateral and practical policy document.

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