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President-elect Barack Obama’s top priority when entering the Oval Office in January must include repairing the country’s relationship with Russia, said international affairs expert Thomas Remington in a lecture at the University of Maine on Monday.
“The main goal must be to stop undermining each other’s security and trust. The United States and Russia must grow to have a competitive, regulated relationship,” Remington said.
During his lecture, Remington noted the current sour relationship with Russia coincides with the most recent U.S. presidents.
He said President George W. Bush nearly ignored Russia’s existence, while former president of Russia Vladimir Putin felt relations with the U.S. were unnecessary during his era full of economic gains and triumph.
For the panel discussion afterward, Remington was joined by Paul Holman, who has a doctorate in Russian history and worked for more than a decade in the U.S. Foreign Service, and Seth Singleton, a retired academic with a doctorate in Russian affairs. Both men are part-time teachers at the university.
Holman said a proposed U.S. missile battery in Poland will increase the tension between America and Russia.
“Current Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced on the night of his election that if the U.S. carries out its plans and places a missile system in Poland, then Russia will place a missile system of their own right next door,” Holman said.
Russia has its eyes set on regaining its status as a great nation and world leader, Singleton said.
“Russia sees itself as equal to the U.S,” Singleton said. “We need to find a mediating ground between ignoring them completely and encouraging their puffery.”
As he ended his presentation, Remington outlined points of common interest Obama must address to repair relations with Russia.
These points included prevention of nuclear proliferation, combating international terrorism, working on climate change problems and working on political stability in the area surrounding the former U.S.S.R.
He said Obama must immediately express his openness and optimism in developing a positive relationship with Russia, with immediate being the key word.
A year from now, the START II treaty between the U.S. and Russia will expire. With the end of this treaty, Russia will have unregulated freedom to do whatever they please with their nuclear weapons. The treaty was signed by George Bush senior and former Russian president Boris Yeltsin on Jan. 3, 1993. The treaty banned the use of Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicles (MIRVs) on nuclear weapons, which make them more first-strike oriented.
“There is no current framework to regulate the future arms race,” Remington said. “That could bring about a very scary, potentially dangerous situation.”
UMaine political science professor James Warhola, who organized the event, served as moderator for the panel. Warhola was pleased with how Remington’s lecture turned out.
“I think he was right on target. He didn’t pre-suppose that everyone knew a lot about Russian affairs, but at the same time, it was insightful enough for reasonably well-informed people. He’s just an absolutely outstanding scholar,” Warhola said.
“I guess I wasn’t quite aware of Russia’s situation with allies – how few friends they have in the area,” said Sarah Flynn, a fourth-year international affairs student focusing in political science.
“I didn’t realize how much of a big deal Russian politics was at UMaine,” said Arron Estes, another fourth-year political science student with a focus in international relations.
University administrator Jim Tollner said he attended the event to find out how Remington thought Obama would interact with Russia.
“I was most interested in the Russian response to U.S. anti-ballistic systems,” Tollner said. “I just wonder why we’re doing it. Supposedly we’re doing it do counter Iran’s missiles, which aren’t even there. Obviously that was a threat to Russia.”
Obama will take office on Jan. 20, 2009.
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