21.03.09

In the lead-up to the first meeting of presidents Dmitri Medvedev and Barack Obama, scheduled for April 1 in London, Moscow and Washington have started actively demonstrating the thaw in bilateral relations. On March 10, Medvedev met with members of a US commission on Russia policy, chaired by former senators Chuck Hagel and Gary Hart. This commission is independent - not part of any government bodies. Its activities are extremely important in that the commission's key function is to prepare a special report on the prospects of relations with Russia, for President Obama.

The conversation between the former senators and President Medvedev made a favorable impression on the participants.

According to our sources, the authors of the report are choosing to focus on positive aspects: that is, not on the political problems in bilateral relations, but on potential economic cooperation.

While the Hagel-Hart commission was in Moscow, a Russian delegation set out for Washington. The delegation from the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RUIE) included RUIE President Alexander Shokhin, Russian Railways (RZD) chief Vladimir Yakunin, Renova Group co-owner Viktor Vekselberg, Ilim Group Chairman Zakhar Smushkin, and MDM Bank Chairman Oleg Vyugin. It's been some time since this kind of Russian delegation visited Washington; in the past few years of the "new Cold War," Russian- US contacts have mostly been confined to the Foreign Ministry- State Department level.

According to our sources, when the Kremlin administration was planning this visit, it expected the RUIE delegation to be received by President Obama. But the White House decided that the Russian guests would meet with Vice President Joe Biden.

According to Shokhin, Biden was the first to raise some long- standing issues in Russian-American relations - such as the Jackson-Vanik amendment and Russia's accession to the WTO. What's more, Biden described Russia's absence from the WTO and the amendment's existence as "anachronisms and relics of the past."

It's worth noting that all the recent US administrations have promised Russia that they will repeal the Jackson-Vanik amendment - but nothing has ever come of those promises, since Congress has not made any decisions to that effect.

As well as meeting with Biden, the RUIE delegation met with Michael McFaul, National Security Council director for Russia, economic advisor David Lipton, and America's G8 sherpa Michael Froman.

The only document signed by the Russian emissaries in Washington was a joint declaration with the US Chamber of Commerce, calling for a new bilateral agreement to protect investors' rights and ongoing intergovernmental dialogue in the field of economic affairs. At a post-talks press conference, Shokhin noted that the Chernomyrdin-Gore commission was a good example of such dialogue. Shokhin later told us that the most important thing is for the commission to have specific goals; the question of who would chair it is secondary. Shokhin said: "Whether it's chaired by Biden and Putin, Lavrov and Clinton, or Shuvalov and the US Commerce Secretary - that's up to our presidents to decide. The important point for us is to ensure that the business community is included in the work of these commissions."

At a meeting with American journalists and analysts, Shokhin said: "Russia and the USA lack concrete examples of economic cooperation. For instance, almost all European companies took part in the privatization of Russia's electricity companies, but American companies don't seem to be interested in the electricity sector - they prefer oil and gas." He noted with satisfaction that the Americans involved in the talks were interested in the RUIE representatives' views on the global economic crisis: "This indicates that we are perceived as equals."

Vladimir Yakunin told us that the Russian delegation got the impression that the US administration is still talking shape, and it would be premature to expect a clear stance from it right now.

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Source: Kommersant