McCain and Obama's People Will Travel to Moscow

McCain and Obama’s people travel to Moscow

In the U.S.A., a committee has been established to analyse Washington’s position with respect to Russia.

Nezavisimaya Gazeta has learned of the formation in the U.S.A. of a bipartite committee, which is charged with preparing a report for the future president on how Washington should deal with Russia. The committee includes politicians, diplomats and experts, including those with direct influence in forming the candidates’ foreign policies. According to NG’s information, the committee will send a delegation to Moscow in November.

In the three months leading to the U.S. presidential elections in November, Harvard University’s Nixon and Belfer Centres have formed a committee to analyse Washington’s policy towards Moscow.

The group’s task is to bring to the attention of the nation’s future leader the importance of supporting constructive relations between the U.S.A. and Russia. Co-chairmen of the new group are Republican senator Chuck Hagel and former Democrat senator Gary Hart. To judge by its make-up, the group is set to have a substantial political resonance. It is planned that a result of its activity will be a substantial report which the elected president of the USA will receive towards the end of the year.

The committee is set to prepare the report for the future leader, for the new Congress and involved communities and to make an appraisal of national interests and priorities of the United States in regard to Russia. It will also have the task of presenting to the president’s future administration recommendations for advancing American interests in dealing with Russia.

The committee has few academic experts on Russia, but many people who deal directly with American politicians and who have practical experience in the Nixon, Reagan, Clinton and Bush administrations. The committee includes Pete Peterson (former trade minister and member of the board of directors of the Council on Foreign Relations), Robert Blackwill (former presidential adviser on national security), General Charles Boyd (former vice-commander of U.S. forces in Europe), Richard Bart (former deputy Secretary of State in Ronald Reagan’s administration) and James Collins (director of the Carnegie Fund’s Russia and Eurasia programs for international peace and former U.S. ambassador to Russia). Re-hashing the Russian formulæ for George Bush’s successor will also be Susan Eisenhower, president of the Eisenhower Group and Robert Ellsworth, ex-vice-minister of defence and ambassador to NATO.

The committee will also include specialists who, until recently, made direct contributions to shaping American policy towards Russia: special assistant Thomas Graham (president and senior director on Russian affairs in the Council of National Security under George Bush) and Graham’s predecessor Mark Medish.

Former trade negotiator Carla Hills will help to shape the views of the future U.S. president on the prospects for Russian-American economic co-operation, which has burgeoned in recent years. Development of co-operation in the nuclear non-proliferation will be promoted by former senator Sam Nunn, along with Richard Lugar, helped start a program to protect the security of Russian nuclear materials. The committee’s list of veterans is completed by former national security advisers Brent Scowcroft and Robert MacFarlane.

In the committee’s statement seen by NG, it is emphasised that each of its members acts in a private capacity. Yet it is difficult to ignore the fact that it includes Obama’s and McCain’s advisers. For example, Chuck Hagel has just returned from an overseas trip with Obama; Sam Hann and Lee Hamilton are in the Democrat candidate’s group of chief advisers on foreign affairs; MacFarlane and Bart are McCain’s advisers.

The bipartite composition of the committee suggests that its recommendations will be sought both by Democratic candidate Barak Obama and by his rival John McCain, whose positions, according to polls, remain close.

Recently, McCain has spoken out particularly often about Russia and, as a rule, on an unhelpful note. (We need only recall his regular call to expel Russia from G8, his criticism of the Kremlin as regards the disputes of shareholders in TNK-BP and others). Obama was more circumspect in his assessment: he didn’t support Russia’s exclusion from G8. Nevertheless, his recent statement on the situation in separatist regions of Georgia (in which he condemned the violation of “Georgian air space” and said that “Russia is not fit for the role of intermediary” in reconciliation) provoked criticism from a series of western analysts.

Thus, Paul Saunders, member of the Valdai discussion group and expert at Washington’s Nixon Centre, observes that of all Obama’s statements, only one sentence can be considered accurate: “…only a political settlement can resolve the conflicts over Abkhazia and South Ossetia…This weak analysis betrays the senator’s lack of international experience…”.

One way or another, observers agree that both Obama and McCain, after arriving at the White House, could become completely different people and, perhaps, more pragmatic leaders. After the loudly-proclaimed slogans, they will need reliable analysis, including that of Russia-American relations. We can expect this of the new commission, which as soon as November, after the elections, will send its delegation to Moscow. According to the NG’s information, the visitors may be received at a high level.