As Washington and Moscow move to a post-“reset” relationship, experts on Russia have joined a discussion panel at the Heritage Foundation to talk about the ways forward in bilateral contacts. Stephen Blank, Ariel Cohen, Vladimir Kara-Murza, and Katrina Lantos Swett agreed that, in the context of Vladimir Putin’s crackdown, human rights must be high on the agenda for US-Russia relations.
Photo by Aliisa Altau.
The Heritage Foundation’s Ariel Cohen, the host of the discussion, emphasized that the “reset” is undoubtedly over—as has been acknowledged by both US and Russian officials—and that the White House must find a new strategy for dealing with the Kremlin. A key part of that strategy must be an unequivocal stance in support of democracy and human rights, which has often been lacking under the “reset.”
“Human rights must be a part of every dialogue and every contact we have with the Russian authorities,” stressed Katrina Lantos Swett, who chairs the US Commission on International Religious Freedom. “The United States should engage not only the Russian government, but also the Russian opposition. We need to give Russian society our public support.”
“The United States should engage not only the Russian government, but also the Russian opposition.”
Vladimir Kara-Murza, senior policy advisor at the Institute of Modern Russia, suggested that the most vivid manifestation of the “reset” came on March 5, 2012. As thousands of people gathered in downtown Moscow to protest a fraudulent election that returned Vladimir Putin to the Kremlin, the US State Department warmly congratulated the strongman on his “victory.” Kara-Murza emphasized that any new US policy toward Russia must balance the necessity of dealing with the current regime with a strategic positioning for relations with a future democratic Russia—and this requires paying attention to Russian civil society, which is developing in spite of Putin’s crackdown, and to the opposition, which is growing in strength as the urban middle-class is raising its political voice.
“The Gulag has returned to Russia, but the US response has been tepid at best – and that is a charitable term,” asserted Professor Stephen Blank of the US Army War College, stressing the need for a more active defense of democratic principles. “The main enemy for Putin’s regime is not the United States—it is democracy,” he added.
