In late November, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced with unusual rhetoric that Moscow may move offensive missile systems to its borders with Europe, if missile defense talks with the United States and NATO fail. Some political analysts suggest that the response of the Russian President to the situation with European missile defense is a manifestation of his disappointment with the reset in relations with the United States. Yet, Russian Presidential Aide Arkady Dvorkovich believes the relationship between Russia and the United States has been reset at the high political level. “I think a reset has already occurred at the top political level. It has not yet occurred in the minds of all players concerned on this arena. We often hear negative signals from the U.S. Congress and other quarters, and we also have people who do not fully accept this intensive dialogue with the U.S. Therefore, saying that the reset has fully occurred would be wrong; but the reset has occurred at the high political level and has produced results,” Dvorkovich said.
He called for working on a new agenda in relations between the two countries, particularly on the missile defense issue.
“European security issues are a serious challenge to all of us. Surely, we expect to move ahead on this issue in the coming months. There will be no rollback in this case,” Dvorkovich said.
At the same time, Dvorkovich did not say definitely whether Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will take part in a NATO summit in Chicago; although he said that the Russian leader is likely to take part in a G8 summit to be held in Chicago at about the same time. “It is too early to say whether he will take part in the NATO summit,” he said.
“From our viewpoint, the results that have been reached are not bad on a number of issues, from the signing of the New START Treaty to the economic agenda, and closer coordination on regional issues. At the same time, significant differences have remained in place on a number of them.”
Russia and America have long been connected by the personal relations between their peoples, including between politicians and business groups. As Russian Senator Mikhail Margelov recently said at the award ceremony when he received the Woodrow Wilson Award for his contribution to U.S.-Russian relations, the personal dimension of the relationship between Russians and Americans will in due course facilitate everything that forms part of the reset of bi-lateral relations: fighting terrorism, cooperating on Afghanistan, and making a new treaty on strategic offensive weapons. “All this can be considered to be genuine achievements of the reset,” the Senator said.