George Perkovich, a leading expert on nuclear proliferation, says the Bush administration may have to drop its regime change strategy for Iran in order to get Russian support for UN sanctions on Tehran's nuclear program.

James M. Goldgeier, former director of Russian affairs in the National Security Council under President Clinton, says that as leading democracies head to the annual G8 meeting in St. Petersburg, the relationship between the United States and Russia "is as poor as it has been since the end of the Cold War."

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.

The next U.S. president will have to confront a deteriorating U.S.-Russia relationship.

"From bizarre border policies and the wholesale deportation of ethnic groups to the mass importation of ethnic Russians to various regions, Stalin's policies created or aggravated conflicts that remain central to understanding Eurasia today."

Gregory Bovt writes that Russia is a low priority on the list of foreign policy issues for both Democratic and Republican candidates and advises avoiding excessive anti-Russian or anti-U.S. rhetoric from both sides.

Inside the petro-fueled naval military buildup you've never heard of: It's Russia versus Iran, with three post-Soviet states -- and trillions of dollars in oil -- in the middle.

Russia's savvy president isn't trying to start a new Cold War, he's just waiting to see what happens in November, writes Andrew S. Weiss for Foreign Policy.

Twelve years after his first election, Vladimir Putin is becoming president of Russia again, but the country is much harder to control now, says this article from the Economist.

Putin is not encouraging Russia to subordinate its global aspirations to other countries' interests in return for investment and technology, but to create internal conditions in which working with Russia would be profitable for foreign business people and scientists, says Pavel Andreev for RIA Novosti.

David Remnick examines how effective the resistance to Putin's next presidency can be.

Gregory Feifer discuses how government corruption and radicalization of Islam in the Northern Caucasus are deepening divisions in society and fueling violence in the area.