President’s Report

September 1, 2005

Dear Friends and Colleagues of CCI,

You haven't had a letter in this column for a while - due to the huge crunch CCI is under as we begin fall of 2005. Some short bullet points follow to give you the essence of where we are and the excitement of what's ahead:

PEP, our business management training for Russian regional entrepreneurs, is under its largest fall season ever -- 32 delegations arriving all over the US to train in about 25 industry sub-sectors!
PEP's transition to sustainability (without State Department funds) is proceeding right on target with Russia's entrepreneurs picking up greater amounts of the costs for their US training.
Our PEP alumni, as a group, were spotlighted in the Russian Investment Review (June issue), an elegant publication. Ten PEP alumni will be featured in short stories in the Review's October issue!
PEP alumni have been invited to the prestigious Russian Economic Forum (REF) in London April 2006. This is the first time this Forum has focused on development of Russia's small and mid-sized businesses. I have been invited to speak at this Forum in April -- another first.
Two of our PEP alumni have been invited to make presentations at the celebrated World Economic Forum (WEF) in October. This is the first time the WEF has spotlighted Russia's small to mid-size businesses. Normally, the WEF is interested only in huge companies.
Regarding CCI's anti-corruption work in Russia: We are in the middle of organizing a year of "firsts" in 2006, hoping to push anti-corruption issues onto Russia's national agenda. If successful, our CCI alumni will be in the forefront of pushing honest business behaviors into everyday business practice.
CCI is starting its first "for-profit" wing of work: CCI Investment Group. We will assist our PEP alumni to link with investors and loan institutions to expand their already successful businesses. We sit in an ideal spot to do this. Revenues from this activity will be plowed back into CCI to continue developing programs to assist Russia's transition.
Our new CCI Travel Program's first delegation of American PEP hosts and sponsors lands in Russia on September 11! For 16 days they will meet with PEP Fellows in their businesses, have seminars with experts on Russia's politics and economics, visit schools and working churches and experience a round of cultural delights. Each will branch out the last six days and travel to PEP entrepreneurs whom they hosted in America. At the end, all will meet back in Moscow to share their impressions while traveling in Russia's various regions. Sound exciting? It will be! A Russia Report will be sent on their reunions and travel escapades.

I leave for Russia on August 30 and will file reports from there.

Thanks for your continued interest in CCI's work!

Sharon Tennison
President

PS: A hot debate in the Russia field is now underway. I've been deeply concerned, as many of you know, about the quality and bias of western news coming out on Russia and have articulated this to journalists and pundits alike. Further, I've tried to create ways to counter some of the more grossly erroneous misrepresentations of events in Russia.

On August 9, a well-known academic, Anders Aslund from the Carnegie Endowment, wrote an article: Putin's Decline and America's Response. It was like a bolt of lightening across a field of usually quiescent Russian analysts and readers. The debate has fueled what looks like a serious challenge to how Russia has been reported in western media so far. If so, Aslund unintentionally has done Russia and western readers a favor -- since a one-sided, biased point of view on Russia is not only unfair to a country struggling to recreate itself, but the consequences are patently dangerous for the rest of the world.

Please check our news page to read Aslund's article. It will be followed by some commentary from those who see Russia from a different perspective. We will add more commentary as we can.