Barack Obama’s approach to foreign policy–rebuild bridges and focus on commonalities, not differences–will be tested this week in Russia. In advance of the trip, Obama and his aides have been adopting an ever-so-slightly more aggressive posture.
Late last week, Obama took the notable step of seeming to scold Russian Prime Minister Vladamir Putin for “keeping one foot in the old ways of doing business,” a reference to the Cold War. “And I think that it’s important that even as we move forward with President Dmitry Medvedev that Putin understand that the old Cold War approaches to U.S.-Russian relations is outdated; that it’s time to move forward in a different direction,” Obama told the Associated Press, in an interview.
Such statements are notable, in part, because the White House has made clear that Obama’s agenda in Russia is to speak not just with political leaders, but directly to the Russian people. In the words of Michael McFaul, Obama’s special assistant on Russian and Eurasian affairs, the president wants “to reset relations with Russian society” and “to try to establish a direct relationship with the Russian people.” Much of the president’s schedule on Tuesday involves meetings with political and civil society leaders, and a major address at the New Economic School in Moscow on U.S. Russian relations and, in the words of another White House aide, “how great powers ought to see this new century.”
In a call with reporters last week, McFaul elaborated on the U.S. strategy for engaging Russia.
I think there’s a big problem in U.S.-Russian relations now and has been for some time in that if you look at Russian public opinion, what Russian elites say, and even some of their leaders, they think of the world in zero-sum terms. The United States is considered an adversary; I’m sure many would use harsher words among themselves when they talk about us. And they think that our number-one objective in the world is to make Russia weaker, to surround Russia, to do things that make us stronger and Russia weaker. I think what you’re going to hear when President Obama is in Moscow, that that is not the way that he sees the relationship; that there are lots of interests that we have and we’re going to speak about them very explicitly, both privately and publicly when he gives his speech. . . .
We’re not going to reassure or give or trade anything with the Russians regarding NATO expansion or missile defense. Rather, our approach is different than that. We’re going to define our national interests, and by that I also mean the interests of our allies in Europe with reference to these two particular questions. We’re going to talk about them very frankly as we did in April when we first met with President Medvedev. And then we’re going to see if there are ways that we can have Russia cooperate on those things that we define as our national interests. So we don’t need the Russians, we don’t want to trade with them. We actually think that if you frame it that way, you’re going to do a lot more business than in other ways.
I leave tonight on Air Force One, so much more to come as the week progresses. (Also, much more to come on Obama’s upcoming meeting with the Pope and his first visit to Africa.) In the meantime, TIME’s Bobby Ghosh has a great overview of the issues that continue to divide the United States and Russia here.