President’s Report

April 1, 2003

Dear Friends of CCI,

As we begin this month of extraordinarily complicated international relations, I want to speak to the situation we as a nation face vis-a-vis the Russian Federation. As always, disagreements and expectations shake normal relations, whether between countries or within marriages. So it is now with U.S.-Russian relations and the Iraqi situation.

I've just returned from visits to seven Russian cities. Russian citizens were eager to learn how American citizens perceive the current situation, and I was eager to know how they perceive it.

I came away with a better understanding of how Russians are thinking and feeling. First, we need to take into consideration that Iraq has been Russia's trade partner for decades and more of a friend than a foe. Russian citizens have been in and out of Iraq throughout these years. A friend of mine in Moscow, Tamara Basamenkova, was the official interpreter for Primakov, the USSR's specialist on Arab nations. She interpreted many times for Primakov and Saddam Hussein. Russia's history with Iraq and Hussein is different than that of Americans.

The best way I know to put this in context is that Russians don't have strong feelings for, or against, Hussein. They see him as a strong-arm leader who has controlled his people tightly, like most of the Middle Eastern countries. They believe he has done some bad things but isn't a thoroughly evil man, and they don't fear him. They perceive him something like we Americans perceived Fernando Marcos of the Philippines prior to his downfall. We knew the Marcos regime was autocratic. We knew from dissidents that he did some pretty terrible things to his own people, but we were in and out of the country, had a lot of trade and other alliances with Marcos, and tolerated what we didn't like of his strong-arm policies. That's how it is with Russians, Hussein and Iraq.

Secondly, the average Russian has a visceral aversion to outside forces coming into a country and bombing civilian populations. World War II and the decimation of Russia's citizenry by the Nazi's are still right under the surface with every Russian family.

Russian polls show that 83 to 97 percent of Russia's population (depending on the region) disapprove of the war without UN approval. President Putin, as a democratically elected president, must take this into consideration when he makes decisions about which course his nation will follow.

Our work at the citizen level is more important now than ever. We must keep the doors open with our Russian friends and with the Russian nation as a whole.

Russia's new citizen leaders, the entrepreneurs throughout the regions, have come to your cities and towns. They admire and respect you and America in a way that would have never been possible without your help. They keep your relationships deep in their hearts. For those of you who have visited PEP Fellows in Russia, you know that we must continue to build the Russia connection despite temporary challenges in governmental differences.

You, dear friend, can play an important role here. Please consider getting in touch with your Russian friends and reaffirming the importance of future American-Russian relations as we move through these difficult days ahead. Let us at CCI know if we can provide you with an email or surface address for a Russian you hosted in your community in order that you can make connection with them.

The most important thing is that we come out of this current situation with our international relationships intact and ready to work together in this increasingly complicated future ahead of us.

Thanks so much for your extraordinary work as "citizen diplomats." In the long run, we citizens will still be exerting influence when today's elected leaders of all countries have come and gone. So let us patiently do our long-term relationship-building work for the benefit of all humankind.

Sincerely,

Sharon Tennison
President