Date: Sun, 8 Feb 2009
Subject: RIA Novosti videoconference 02/12
From: RIA Novosti Washington <novosti.dc@gmail.com>
Russian News & Information Agency
1706 18th Street, NW, Washington, DC
www.en.rian.ru
What President Obama signifies to Russia?
New approaches, broader contacts
Videoconference Moscow - Washington, DC
Thursday, February 12, 2009
9:00 - 10:30 a.m.
Speakers
From Washington, DC
Harley Balzer
Associate Professor of Government and International Affairs
Georgetown University
Gregory Guroff
Expert on the Soviet Union in the US Information Agency (USIA).
Former coordinator of the President's US-Soviet Exchange Initiative
Sherwood H. Demitz
Former strategic planner for the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), Soviet
Affairs desk officer for USIA
From Moscow
Irina Yasina
Director, Regional Journalism Club, Economist
Anatoly Utkin
Director, Center for International Studies, US & Canada Institution of the
Russian Academy of science
Fedor Lukyanov (TBC)
Editor-in-Chief, Russia in Global Affairs magazine
Elena Nemirovskaya (TBC)
Founder and Director, Moscow School of Political Studies
Location: RIA Novosti, 1706 18 Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20009
RSVP Novosti.DC@gmail.com; Svetlana.babaeva@gmail.com
8:30 - 9:00 a.m. Registration and breakfast Reception.
9:00 -10:30 a.m. Discussion
Moderator Nargiz Asadova
Deputy Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief
Russian News & Information Agency
Topics for Discussion:
U.S.-Russian relations have now reached their lowest point since the breakup of the Soviet Union. Most recently U.S.-Russian relations have been strained over U.S. plans to build a missile shield in Eastern Europe and over Russia's brief war with Georgia, a close U.S. ally.
During the last phone call on January 26 Barack Obama and Dmitri Medvedev agreed that, "as they were both new leaders from a post-Cold War generation they have a unique opportunity to establish a fundamentally different kind of relationship between the two countries".
How the personality of Barack Obama can influence US-Russian relations?
President Obama decided to use a "weapon" of public diplomacy by giving the first television network interview to al-Arabiya. The new president's actions and words constitute an unusually high-profile and personalized "public diplomacy" campaign to correct what he perceives as a serious strategic problem for the United States. Is he going to use this public diplomacy approach in the case of Russia?
Is Russia keen to improve relationship with the US and involve broader contacts in communication process?
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