Tough Love on Russia

Campus Report ^ | July 7, 2009 | Anthony Kang

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Tough Love on Russia

by: Anthony Kang, July 07, 2009

In concert with many other remarks made by President Obama, there has been much mystery, worry, and speculation regarding his stated desire to “reset the button” on U.S.-Russia bilateral relations.

The Heritage Foundation held a discussion July 1st led by panelists Ariel Cohen, Senior Research Fellow in Russian and Eurasion Studies, Sanford Saunders, partner at Greenberg Traurig, and director of the New European Democracies Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Janusz Bugajski, who each shared their expectations for Obama’s visit and possible consequences of the summit’s outcome.

“By all appearances Mr. [Dmitry] Medvedev and [Vladimir] Putin are reviving the old Soviet Africa strategy...now the Kremlin is trying to regain its status as a global player and Africa appears to be the first coordinated attempt to do so,” says Cohen. Medvedev has talked much about innovation and diversification in high-tech development but those words appear to be mere rhetoric and peripheral goals, as Russia’s actions and global strategy have demonstrated. While Obama’s upcoming visit to Africa will focus on global warming, the Russians have made serious inroads to lock up and consolidate natural resources in Africa and Asia. Medvedev and his team have targeted oil, copper, diamonds, and uranium in African states which have generated several cooperative agreements.

According to a recent June 9th Heritage article by Cohen, recent developments include:

• an oil pipeline deal in Nigeria;
• a $300 million loan to Angola in eye of greater access to their oil fields;
• a cooperation pact with Egypt to build the state’s first nuclear power plant; and
• several gas export deals Russia has secured utilizing carrots and sticks

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