Word: yekaterinburg
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Russia, to be sure, is not entirely dependent on a U.S. endorsement to feel important. In mid-June, it hosted two summits in the Ural city of Yekaterinburg: one with members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (which includes China and four Central Asian republics, as well as observer states India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan) and the other with leaders of the so-called BRIC nations - Brazil, Russia, India and China. Medvedev was the first foreign leader to receive Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, after his controversial re-election. (See pictures of the aftermath of Iran's election...
IRAN A Threat or a Neighbor? While Washington has watched Iran's postelection chaos with growing alarm, Moscow has mostly looked the other way. Medvedev and Putin made no mention of the massive protests in Tehran or the allegations of vote-fixing when Ahmadinejad visited Yekaterinburg. That's because Russia's interests in Iran have always been strategic. "Iran is a special relationship for them," says Eugene Rumer, a senior fellow at the National Defense University's Institute for National Strategic Studies. "It is their entry point for Middle East politics. It's a country they don't want...
...policy has been cultivating a "look east" strategy, securing greater links with its historical neighborhood as governments in Tel Aviv and Washington dial up the heat. In his election campaign, the Iranian President trumpeted his ability to make Iran a leading global power, and he urged those assembled in Yekaterinburg to pursue more coordinated action and policy, like the formation of a joint regional bank in Eurasia. "Taking collective decisions on politics, economics and culture," Ahmadinejad opined, "will facilitate stabilization of the situation in all the countries." (See what Ahmadinejad's win means for other world leaders...
...execution of the war on terrorism, Iran is still keen to boost its long-standing friendship with New Delhi. A mooted gas pipeline, running from Iran's fields through Afghanistan and into Pakistan and India, is a massive project that appeals to all parties involved. Conversation in Yekaterinburg will surely include the need to shore up the region's economies - China has already promised a $10 billion soft loan to its SCO allies, including Russia, which has been hit particularly hard by the fallout of the world's financial crisis. Few will raise thornier questions of political reform. After...
...National Security Writer Anne Gearan in Washington and AP writer Vladimir Isachenkov in Yekaterinburg, Russia, contributed to this story...