President’s Report

April 25, 2005

Dear Friends and Colleagues of CCI,

I want to share a deep concern of mine, one that is shared by many Americans who are more deeply involved with Russia than I am, by which I mean the ones who are are living and building businesses there. Since December 2003, there has been a rapidly increasing concentration of dour, even sinister news about Russia in our media. U.S. journalists are penning articles supposedly full of evidence that Russia is failing as a democracy, reverting to an authoritarian state, or even worse.

It has reached the point now that average Americans throughout the U.S. are beginning to view Russia once again as "the enemy." I've heard the comments myself as I'm traveling, making presentations on PEP and Russia's bumpy transition. My most recent encounter was at the customs counter in JFK Airport, when I was returning from Russia back in March. The customs official looked at my papers, his face turned grim, and he said, "Looks like that Putin is another Joe Stalin, huh?" With only seconds to react, and a long line of fellow travelers behind me, I was dumbstruck trying to figure out how I could respond in one short sound bite.

What are the reasons for this trend? Who is behind it? There are any number of partial answers, but whatever the causes may be, the effects are indisputably very dangerous, not only for Russia and global politics, but for the U.S as well. We live in a world these days in which hostility towards the U.S. grows, while the number of our serious allies dwindles. We need those allies, and Russia could easily become one of them, unless we blackball her into a corner.

A couple of weeks ago, I participated in a meeting at the American Chamber of Commerce in Moscow to discuss this very situation. In that meeting, a strategy was created for getting out a second track of information regarding "hot" issues as they come up in Russia. This effort will include writing Op-Ed pieces for newspapers, visiting Congress members, and generally publicizing a more accurate and balanced point of view on Russia using every means available.

One of these means will be the creation of a monthly e-mail list called The Russia Connection. This list will give middle America a broader view than what is reported in the US media on Russia's transition to a more democratic form of government today. The format of The Russia Connection will be as simple and user-friendly as possible. Each monthly e-mail will begin with a brief summary for those who are too busy to read the entire text. For those who have time to read further, a more in-depth analysis of the issue will follow.

We urge you to forward these short but fact-laden emails to your email friends, and when appropriate, to your local newspapers. We will appreciate your input to The Russia Connection in addition to requests for information on specific topics.

My best to you,

Sharon Tennison
President

P.S.: Your name and e-address will be carefully protected and never given to anyone - nor will we ever solicit the list for contributions - this is solely a second-track information service.

P.P.S.: Finally, thanks so very much for participating earlier in our Productivity Enhancement Program (PEP). PEP is now in it's ninth year, and it's said to be the most effective and widespread technical assistance program in the Russia field. If so, it's due to you throughout the US who have worked weeks and even months to transfer the best of American business know-how to PEP's Russian entrepreneurs. Without you, PEP would have never been possible. Together we have trained close to 6,000 PEP alumni in US businesses, in addition to 1,000 more in EDP. Our Russian alumni are scattered in over 500 Russia cities and towns. We continue to keep tabs on many of these Fellows, even in far-out places. I'm preparing to do an annual evaluation trip to some 20 Russian cities to interview PEP graduates in their businesses and communities. More news to follow!

P.P.S.: Don't forget to check out the report from the recent regional conference on anti-corruption that was held in Novosibirsk.