Below, please find the latest articles to have appeared in print and electronic media about CSIS and its experts. For your reference, there is also a link to archived media coverage of CSIS.
Sarah Mendelson, a senior fellow with the CSIS Russia and Eurasia Program, was quoted by National Journal, “The Last Dance."
President Bush had barely settled into the White House when FBI agent Robert Hanssen was unmasked as a Russian spy of 22 years' standing. The new chief executive, who had forcefully criticized Russian conduct in Chechnya during the 2000 campaign, decided to send a tough message to Moscow: Fifty Russian diplomats were expelled over the worst breach in American counterespionage in more than a generation. That was seven years and a lot of ups and downs ago. The early clarity got smudged. After Bush met Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time (and peered into the ex-KGB man's soul) in June 2001, just four months after Hanssen's arrest, he decided that the U.S. and Russia could get along quite well, actually. [...]Putin had a couple of good days. He showcased the continuity of Russian leadership with the presence of Medvedev. He demonstrated to Russia and its neighbors that the American president would come and talk to him. And he enlisted Bush's help in providing some branding for Sochi, where the Winter Olympics will be held in 2014. At a moment when protests are disrupting Olympic torch ceremonies on the road to Beijing, says Sarah Mendelson, a senior fellow in the Russia and Eurasia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Putin gained Bush's imprimatur for Sochi, which is in the North Caucasus, not far from the ruins of Chechnya.Read the article
Andrew Kuchins, director of the CSIS Russia and Eurasia Program, was quoted by the Associated Press, "Bush: New Security Relationship with Russia."
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush's meeting with Russia's Vladimir Putin this weekend probably will be their last while Putin is still president. Once again, controlling the threat of nuclear weapons is circling back to American and Russian leaders.Bush has met with Putin some 20 times, according to an unofficial White House count, more often than with any other foreign leader except Britain's Tony Blair. "Both have invested a lot in this relationship, but they haven't had a big payoff," said Andrew Kuchins, director of the Russia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "I think they would like to reverse that trajectory," Kuchins said in an interview.Read more
March 30
Andrew Kuchins, director of the CSIS Russia and Eurasia Program, was quoted by the Associated Press, "Ukraine's Hopes to Join NATO Soured by Fierce Opposition from Russia, Internal Problems."
If it weren't for Ukraine's drive to join NATO, army conscripts here might still be peeling potatoes and wrapping their feet in cloth instead of socks, as their predecessors had done for centuries. Ukrainian officials will showcase these and other reforms at the NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania, this week, in hopes the Western military alliance will risk angering Moscow and invite this former Soviet republic to start the process of membership. [...] "The carrot of membership has been very useful," said Andrew Kuchins, head of the Russia and Eurasia program with the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.Read the article
March 17
Sarah Mendelson, a senior fellow with the CSIS Russia and Eurasia Program, was quoted by Reuters, "Top U.S. Officials Say 'Impressed' With Russia’s Medvedev."
Even before she landed in Moscow, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was talking about Russian President-elect Dmitry Medvedev as someone she thought she could do business with. With U.S.-Russia relations at a low, the Bush administration is looking anxiously at Medvedev, who takes over as president in May while outgoing President Vladimir Putin is expected to become his prime minister. "Russia has figured pretty far down the scale and that has had consequences," said Sarah Mendelson, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think-tank. Read the article
March 6
Sarah Mendelson, a senior fellow with the CSIS Russia and Eurasia Program, was quoted by the Washington Post, "Russia Pumps Tens of Millions into Burnishing Image Abroad."
In early 2004, when Svetlana Mironyuk became director general of the Russian news and information agency RIA Novosti, she discovered that the descendant of the Soviet Union's global propaganda machine was dying on its feet. Some of its writers were still using typewriters from communist days. The agency was publishing just one English-language newspaper, Sputnik, which was supposedly sold in Britain, although Mironyuk said she could find no evidence of that. Travel agents and dentists had moved into RIA's stolid Moscow headquarters building. [...] But Sarah Mendelson, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said she actually found herself reading an article in the latest edition. She calls the overall push "remarkable," aimed at general audiences as well as elites.Read the article
March 6
Sarah Mendelson, a senior fellow with the CSIS Russia and Eurasia Program, appeared on PBS’s NewsHour Insider Forum, "Experts Answered Your Questions on Russian Politics."
On Sunday, Russian citizens went to the polls and overwhelmingly voted Dmitry Medvedev as the new President of Russia. Medvedev is the handpicked successor to outgoing President Vladimir Putin. Putin, Medvedev has said, would become prime minister in his government, a position of significant power. Last week, the NewsHour's special correspondent Simon Marks filed a report from Moscow on the election, and we invited you to submit questions. Here to answer those questions and others are two guests: Sarah Mendelson is the Director of the Human Rights and Security Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. She's also a senior fellow with the Russia and Eurasia Program. Also joining us, Cliff Kupchan. He's Director of Europa and Eurasia at the Eurasia Group, an international consulting firm. He's also the former Vice President and Senior Fellow of the Nixon Center, where he focused on the Russian energy sector and Russian politics. Welcome to you both. Read the transcript
March 4
Andrew Kuchins, director of the CSIS Russia and Eurasia Program, was quoted by USA Today, "Russia Unlikely to Veer from Putin’s Course."
Russia's presidential election this weekend may have been flawed, but it reflected that most Russians are pleased with the nation's strong economy and assertive foreign policy, experts and election observers said Monday. Such views make it unlikely that President-elect Dmitry Medvedev, at least initially, will embark on a far different course from his predecessor and mentor, Vladimir Putin. [...] Russia's economy has grown about 7% a year since 1999, thanks largely to high oil prices, said Andrew Kuchins, a Russia specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.Read the article
March 4
Steven Pifer, a senior adviser with the CSIS Russia and Eurasia Program, was quoted by the Washington Times, "Ukraine’s Gas Supply Reduced."
Russia flexed its muscles just hours after Dmitry Medvedev won the presidential elections by lowering gas supplies to Ukraine yesterday in a long-running price dispute. A 25 percent gas cut was announced by the Russian state-run gas monopoly Gazprom, which was headed by Mr. Medvedev before Sunday's elections. [...] "Europe wants Kiev and Moscow to find a quick resolution," said Steven Pifer, a senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former ambassador to Ukraine.Read the article
March 4
Steven Pifer, a senior adviser with the CSIS Russia and Eurasia Program, was quoted by the Associated Press, "Russia Cuts Gas to Ukraine."
MOSCOW (AP) — Western Europe is watching warily as Russia and Ukraine are locked in a natural gas dispute that has reduced the supply to Ukraine by at least half since the beginning of the week."We have little reliable information on who owes what to whom. It is thus unclear whether this is a commercial dispute or something more," said Steven Pifer, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine who now is an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.Read the article
Johanna Mendelson Foreman, a senior associate at CSIS, had an op-ed published in the Miami Herald, "What Haiti Needs to Sustain Progress."
Anyone visiting Port-au-Prince today will note that public safety has returned to this city of more than two million people. A democratically elected government is in place, as are local government officials. President Rene Préval has created one of the most inclusive governments in recent history, four years after his predecessor, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was forced to step down as president. There is even an ongoing dialogue with the Dominican Republic on border management and migration. Much of the credit for this stability goes to the U.N. Mission in Haiti, MINUSTAH, which, together with the Préval government, remains a moderating force in stabilizing Haiti. Its presence, guaranteed by a U.N. Security Council mandate, unfortunately will expire in October. It should be renewed. Read the article
February 29
Andrew Kuchins, director of the CSIS Russia and Eurasia Program, was quoted by NPR.org, "Focus Shifts to How Medvedev Will Run Russia."
Andrew Kuchins of the Center for Strategic and International Studies says "we should leave ourselves open to taking Medvedev seriously." Kuchins notes that Medvedev, who is 42, comes from a background that's very different from that of his mentor, who is 55. In the context of Russia, Kuchins says, the age difference is important, because it means that Putin spent a significant part of his career under the Soviet system, whereas Medvedev did not.Read the article
Steven Pifer, a senior adviser with the CSIS Russia and Eurasia Program, was quoted by the Associated Press, "Kosovo Strains U.S.-Russian Ties."
American flags flutter almost everywhere in Kosovo, a symbol of how - through successive Democratic and Republican administrations - the U.S. has long been a friend of this nation in the making. . . "It's a relationship that's been going downhill pretty much since 2002," said Steven Pifer, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and a senior specialist on Russia for the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. Read More
Steven Pifer, a senior adviser with the CSIS Russia and Eurasia Program, had a commentary published by the International Herald Tribune, "It's Time for Ukraine to get Started."
At NATO headquarters last Friday, the Ukrainian foreign minister presented a request from his government for a membership action plan for Ukraine, which Kiev hopes will be approved when the alliance's 26 leaders meet in Bucharest in April. NATO should say yes. The goal of NATO enlargement since the mid-1990s has been to achieve a broader, more secure Europe. This has driven alliance decisions to take in Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary in 1999, and seven additional Baltic and Central European states in 2004. Those decisions have produced a more stable and integrated Europe, and underpin the dramatic democratic and economic transformations made by the new member states.Read the article
January 18
Sarah Mendelson, a senior fellow with the CSIS Russia and Eurasia Program, was quoted by the Washington Times, "Bush Meeting with Kissinger, Primakov."
President Bush went into a meeting this morning with former U.S. and Soviet officials this morning, including former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and former Soviet Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov. . . Sarah Mendelson, a Russia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the group is a way for Mr. Putin to maintain contact with the Bush administration while continuing to close off contact with the U.S. inside his country. "Putin wants a funnel system where he has contact with a very few senior folks repeatedly and that's where he’s getting his idea of what policy is going to be, and then he wants to cut off contact for everybody else," Ms. Mendelson said. Read More
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