Dear Friends of CCI,

Excuse the temporary break in communications! We've had an exciting, experimental and busy beginning of 2008!

We've moved into new Presidio space, created a number of new Business Training Programs for Russian entrepreneurs and Russian youth, developed (in house) a new blog from scratch, put our 25th Anniversary Celebration in the fast track, started a new program to monitor US media on Russia issues, renovated space for CCI's St.Petersburg office, and learned that we will receive a substantial infusion of capital to expand CCI's Angels Program for training youth in Russian orphanages. All of this is rapidly becoming self sustaining!

For newcomers to this website, let us recap before going further. From 1996 to 2004 CCI received annual multi-million dollar grants for the Productivity Enhancement Program (PEP) which was the largest effort in the field to train Russian entrepreneurs in American companies. PEP trained nearly 6,000 Russian entrepreneurs across 45 states. In 2004 all economic funds to Russia were terminated. Between 2004 and 2007 we attempted to carry out a self-sustaining PEP, but eventually not enough Russians could pay full fare to keep the massive program running. PEP was phased out at the end of 2007. We down-sized staff and space, outsourced functions, donated computers and furniture to schools and nonprofit organizations - and yet we knew we still had a huge mission to fulfill!

As 2008 approached, four staff members and I moved to much smaller space in Presidio Headquarters Building and began working like beavers. It was great - cozy, no walls or doors between us - it felt like CCI's heady first days in the early 1980s.

So let us share what we've been up to!

NEW! Advanced Business Training Programs

Program Co-Directors, Olga Tretyakova and Renat Deushev, designed and are implementing this multi-faceted activity - and are doing a terrific job. A group of 24 Russian entrepreneurs trained in San Francisco in the last two weeks. Professional management consultants gave them day-long seminars. At their farewell banquet, they were overflowing with gratitudes for the training and the chance to meet with "real" Americans - which they claimed had destroyed their erroneous stereotypes of the U.S. It appears we will be able to get sufficient full-pay delegates ($6,000 and $7,000 per person) for this smaller program. More to follow.

IN PROCESS: CCI 25th Anniversary Celebration!

Some 400 attendees have signed up for a four-day celebration at Asilomar Conference Center on the Pacific Ocean near Carmel. Russia's all-time favorite TV anchor, Vladimir Pozner, will keynote the celebration and be available for discussions and Q&As for the entire event. Andrei Danilenko, Western Russia's first Rotary District Governor will be the second keynoter. Danilenko was a 13-year-old in 1983 who regularly helped host CCI citizen diplomats in his Moscow home. The Anniversary's Gala Banquet will also be attended by many Americans who can't join in the entire celebration. The entire conference will be a fabulous tribute to the power of ordinary citizens who together make a difference in the world! There are still a few beds left for Americans celebrants. Consider joining us! If you have questions email Masha Maslova, Conference Coordinator, at masha@ccisf.org.

NEW! Russia Media Watch

We continue to be greatly concerned about the one-sided, slanted journalism regarding Russia issues in leading U.S. newspapers. Russia Media Watch (RMW) hired Gordon Hahn, a PhD Russia expert at Monterey Institute for International Studies (MIIS) to analyze major articles in leading national newspapers (New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, The Economist, etc). RMW uses 17 objective criteria to spotlight abuse of journalistic standards in reporting on Russia. Articles are footnoted to demonstrate omission of key facts, distortions and sensationalism. RMW analyses are posted on CCI's new blog, Russia: Other Points of View. Check www.russiaotherpointsofview.com to see the RMW product, and to get your news on Russia.

NEW! CCI's FIRST BLOG - Russia: Other Points of View

The initiative's title speaks for itself. This blog carries analyzed articles by American journalists and pundits and gives links to other Russia experts who hold opinions different from traditional U.S. newspapers and publications. Log on and send us your comments. Masha Maslova was the point person most responsible for getting the blog up and running - and remains an integral part of the blog's operations.

EXPANDING! Angels for Angels Program

We are proud to tell you that by autumn the expansion of our orphanage program will begin. Originally designed by the donor, Ms. Nika Pleshkova Thayer, the program provides work skills for Russian youth prior to their leaving the orphanages at age 17. CCI installs computer laboratories and hires trainers to teach students computer technology after their normal school day. The new funds will increase the number of orphanage labs and will provide higher education for top pupils. Expect the full story on this heartful program in the next couple of reports.

NEW! CCI's St. Petersburg Office

Our Russian staff will move to freshly renovated quarters during July. The CCI Business Club of Petersburg is becoming a major success. In this second capital city of Russia, we keep a microscope on hundreds of CCI's alumni. The US training was enormously helpful to their businesses, and without exception they are successful today and their businesses are still in rapid growth phase. The same can be said for CCI alumni throughout Russia. We have created unending ripples of business acumen and goodwill for America throughout Russia.

That's the CCI wrap-up for now. We continue to move forward with excitement - still serving the mission with which we started 25 years ago! As we said then - and still are convinced, "The future is too important to leave up to politicians (and journalists and pundits), so citizens MUST carry out our own diplomacy and inform the American public of what we are learning.

All the best to you,

Sharon Tennison
President