A resounding cheer for the comments submitted by Paul Saunders and Brooke Leonard (item 26 8/04/08) re the positions taken by both the Demcratic and Republican candidates towards Russia. Both candidates should heed Fareed Zakaria's advise (Washington Post 8/04/08) written in the context of an article decrying China bashing, but applying with equal force to Russia. "The greatest failure of Western foreign policy since the Cold War ended has been a sin of omission. We have not pursued a foreign policy toward the world's newly rising powers that aims to create new and enduring relations with them, integrate them into existing structures of power and lay our new rules of the road to secure peace and prosperty." We tend to encircle Russia and then complain when they try and break out of the circle. President Medevedev's vaguely defined proposal to create a new security (and, one would hope, trade) relationship from Vancoever to Vladivostok should be welcomed as an opening to new thinking instead of trashed as being both impractical and a threat.