Wow - this is a first - Free Republic members touting a product worked on by STROBE TALBOTT - the man who gives Gorbachev ALL the credit for the end of the Cold War AND denies Reagan his rightful legacy of having defeated Communism... The same Strobe Talbott who told "us" to put all our eggs in the Gorbachev basket and forget about Yeltsin.... Yeah, I'd bank on anything he worked on (/sarcasm)
Here's Strobe (and btw, he's the reason the Clinton Administration squandered all the good chances we had to ensure Russia chose the right path):
"In the May 21, 1984 Time, he insisted: "The Reagan Administration has made a bad situation worse in two ways: First, by convincing the Soviet leaders that the U.S. no longer accepts military parity as the basis for relations with Moscow; second, by challenging the legitimacy of the Soviet regime, calling the USSR an `evil empire' doomed to fail."
Here's Strobe telling Eastern Europe they shouldn't be free:
"Throughout the 1980s, most of these pundits derisively condemned Mr. Reagan's policies. Mr. Talbott faulted the Reagan administration for espousing "the early fifties goal of rolling back Soviet domination of Eastern Europe," an objective he considered misguided and unrealistic. "Reagan is counting on American technological and economic predominance to prevail in the end," Mr. Talbott scoffed, adding that if the Soviet economy was in a crisis of any kind, "it is a permanent, institutionalized crisis with which the U.S.S.R. has learned to live." (That's right Poland, East Germany, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, etc., etc., if Strobe had his way you would NOT be free)
More from Strobe Talbott praising Gorby:
"Gorbachev won Time's esteemed award because they share the same foreign policy outlook. To both, the Soviet threat was a Western, right-wing delusion.Dissing Reagan again in favor of Gorbachev:
"Strobe Talbott, writing in the issue of Time magazine that declared Gorbachev "Man of the Decade," dismisses what he calls the "conceit" that Gorbachev is a consequence and vindication of Western policy, and says flatly: "Gorbachev is responding primarily to internal pressures, not external ones..."
And more about this putz (his complicity in the Russia-Iran Missile sales):
"Talbott didn't want anything to interfere with his agenda of aid to Russia,"say congressional aides familiar with his role in quashing the information and lobbying to get Oehler fired. "Raising the issue of Russian missile transfers to Iran was sure to anger the Russians - something Talbott wanted to avoid at all costs." A top aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu put it more politely: "Israel is on the receiving end of these missiles, whereas Strobe Talbott views this issue in the broader context of U.S.-Russian relations." By mid-summer, however, with the Russian transfers accelerating, not slowing, Lott teamed up with Senator Joseph Lieberman to introduce legislation that would impose sanctions on the Russian firms engaged in the transfers and cut off U.S. aid to Talbott's pet Russian projects, including the high profile flights of American astronauts on board the Mir space station. To quell the storm, Talbott finally agreed to hand the issue over to retired Ambassador Frank Wisner, who in July was asked to be the U.S. delegate to a joint committee with the Russians to investigate the allegations of missile transfers to Iran. His Russian counterpart was none other than Yuri Koptev, the head of the Russian Space Agency - the very man the Israelis claimed was behind some of the Russian missile deals with Iran."
Sorry - can't give any credence to any report on any subject that had Strobe Talbott working on it.
Take a good look at the biographies at the end of the report. A lot of left-leaning, or downright leftist "think tanks" represented (ex: World Wildlife Federation). Also look at the time periods the participants were government workers (big hint - Bill Clinton). I find it odd that the group of people who were the ones advising Clinton on Russia and got it soooooo wrong are now publishing this. Well, expect the report to be quoted by the DNC. (And, there are some valid points made in it [a broken clock is right twice a day too], but the irony is these are the folks who were standing watch when Russia started veering down the wrong path and their own ineptitude is the root of the problems vis-a-vis our situation with Russia)