Home pagePress CenterIn the Media Sarah Mendelson, a senior fellow with the CSIS Russia and Eurasia Program, was quoted by National Journal, “The Last Dance."
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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.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is a private, tax-exempt institution focusing on international public policy issues. Its research is nonpartisan and nonproprietary. CSIS does not take specific policy positions; accordingly, all views, positions, and conclusions expressed in these publications should be understood to be solely those of the authors.
