This report asserts a U.S.-Russia "partnership" is the right long-term goal, but not a realistic prospect over the next few years. This report is also available in Russian.

Stephen Sestanovich, CFR’s top Russia expert, says President Vladimir Putin’s choice for a successor, Dmitri Medvedev, is a relative “liberal.”

Stephen Sestanovich writes that "you have to go back to Nikita Khrushchev to find a Russian leader using the pungent anti-Western rhetoric that Putin has made the staple of his campaign."

Stephen Sestanovich, CFR’s top Russia expert, says President Vladimir Putin seems to be enjoying keeping the world guessing as to whether he will seek to become prime minister of Russia.

Stephen Sestanovich, CFR’s top Russia expert, says the informal summit at Kennebunkport, Maine, restored nuclear issues as “the core of the relationship.”

Since the end of the Cold War, successive American administrations have sought to create a relationship with Russia that they called a “partnership.” This report asserts that this is the right long-term goal, but it is unfortunately not a realistic prospect for U.S.-Russia relations over the next several years. This report is also available in Russian.

Stephen Sestanovich, a Clinton administration expert on the former Soviet Union, says the crisis between Russia and Georgia plays to deep-seated fears in both countries and could build to the point where confrontations are not fully controlled.

This report asserts a U.S.-Russia "partnership" is the right long-term goal, but not a realistic prospect over the next few years. This report is also available in Russian.

Fifteen years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, “U.S.-Russia relations are clearly headed in the wrong direction,” finds an Independent Task Force on U.S. policy toward Russia sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations.

The project director of the Council on Foreign Relations' Independent Task Force report on U.S. policy toward Russia says a major test of Moscow's relations with the West will be how it handles the talks on Iran's nuclear program. Stephen Sestanovich says although the United States and Europe have so far backed the Russian initiative on enriching uranium for Iran, the major question will arise if Iran firmly rejects the Russian offer.