Preview of President Bush’s Trip to Russia: Assessing Current Relations Between Moscow and Washington

In May, President George W. Bush travels to Moscow and St. Petersburg for his fourth summit meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Preparations for the summit have spotlighted a range of items on the bilateral agenda, such as NATO expansion, an agreement on reductions in strategic nuclear weapons, and a bilateral agreement on a new strategic framework for U.S.-Russian relations and cooperation on a range of economic and political issues, including the repeal of the Jackson-Vanick trade restrictions and support for Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization.

In the last year, President Putin appeared to shift traditional Russian positions on key questions such as U.S. withdrawal from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty and the presence of U.S. troops in Central Asia and in Georgia, leading the speculation about what Putin needs in return from the United States to placate domestic critics and maintain the positive momentum of relations with the United States.

A group of Brookings foreign policy experts will discuss these and other issues in the U.S.-Russian relationship in the critical weeks leading up to the summit.