Location: The Heritage Foundation's Lehrman Auditorium

The U.S.-Russia relationship has further deteriorated since Russian President Vladimir Putin’s delivered his “Fulton” speech at the Wehrkunde security conference in Munich last February.  Putin’s harsh words, followed by a visit to the U.S. Middle East allies, including Saudi Arabia, where he promoted sales of nuclear reactors and modern weaponry evoked images of Cold War.  Nevertheless, Russia appears to cooperate on Iran, and recognizes that other issues, such as nuclear safety, are paramount. This conference will examine shifting Russian foreign policy strategy and its priorities; review causes for a dramatic shift in Moscow’s geopolitical role; and will consider changes that took place in the relationship between Russia and the U.S. under the Putin and Bush administrations.   Only with solid understanding of Russia’s foreign policy strategy and its drivers, undertaken at the first panel of the conference, can we successfully map out US strategy, options, and specific  policies for the future – the task the second panel will have to cope with.