Kremlin in Preparation for Obama-Medvedev Summit

Yevgeny Volk / June 30, 2009

Moscow’s recent diplomatic demarches manifest the Kremlin’s drive to solidify its positions ahead of meeting with President Obama. Therefore, the Kremlin is trying to give the appearance of concessions on the issues that have long been a matter of concern for the American side. For example, on President Medvedev’s order, the State Duma is urgently considering amendments to the NGO law. They are designed to somewhat soften the red tape in regard to NGO activities – to ease accounting and registration requirements. Typically, communists who opposed the amendments unequivocally stated that President Dmitry Medvedev is using them to send a clear signal to the West that he is a “liberalizer” and is allegedly going to promote civil society.

Moscow is also prepared to re-launch its cooperation with NATO, suspended in the aftermath of the past year’s Russian-Georgian war. At the NATO-Russia foreign ministers meeting on Corfu (Greece) the sides succeeded in both demonstrating the political significance of the reestablished dialogue and agree some joint efforts in cooperating more closely on Afghanistan. Admittedly, Moscow does not lose sight of an important economic element – it expects NATO to pay a lot for the transit of military supplies to Afghanistan through Russian territory. (more…)