President Barack Obama should challenge the Kremlin on its democratic backsliding at this week’s U.S.-Russian summit in Moscow, says a group of foreign policy specialists and democracy advocates.
The open letter, an initiative of the Foreign Policy Initiative, suggests that the president should reiterate the argument of his recent Cairo speech that governments that protect democratic rights “are ultimately more stable, successful and secure.”
The administration should ensure that efforts to “reset” U.S.-Russian relations do not come “at the expense of the Russian people or Russia’s neighbors”, says the letter signed by, amongst others, the presidents of the National Endowment for Democracy and some of its core institutes.
Obama will need to address the diplomatically sensitive issue of “how to indicate American preferences for the advance of democracy without riling Russia’s leaders,” says Stephen Sestanovich of the Council on Foreign Relations. He sees fewer differences between Russia’s premier and president than between their respective coteries:
The advisers who favor a more Western-style modernization with a greater emphasis on the rule of law and more commitment towards combating corruption see Medvedev as their advocate and their hope, and Putin as a symbol of proto-authoritarian Russian politics. The Putin people answer back that Putin has overseen a significant revival of Russian growth and stability.
Using the Moscow visit to identify America’s vision of the future with Russia’s own but still partially repressed democratic aspirations should be part of the summit ritual,” writes former US National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski. He hopes there will be a chance to convey such a message “either through a speech or gesture to honor the many (and currently in Russia ignored) victims of Leninism-Stalinism” that would “help shape a political context for Russia’s evolution towards a genuine partnership with the world of democracy.”
Although realist critics have urged Obama to focus on nuclear arms talks and other strategic issues, some observers are optimistic that democracy and human rights issues will make it to the agenda in part because of the influence of his senior Russia counsel, Michael McFaul.
Formerly with the National Democratic Institute and a fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy, McFaul is known to insist on the compatibility of constructive engagement and democracy promotion and to believe that “true partnership is possible only with a Russia that shares a commitment to liberal democracy.”
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