On April 27, the Kennan Institute hosted a conversation between Thomas Graham and Celeste Wallander on the U.S.-Russia relationship and how and whether the U.S. should engage.

This conversation is the first in an occasional Kennan Institute series featuring discussions with leading experts and thinkers on Russia and Eurasia. 

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Selected Quotes

Celeste Wallander

“First of all, the constraints on the New START extension are entirely self-imposed. It’s the negotiating position of the Trump administration that isn’t interested in a bilateral agreement, and any extending it has to include China, and so that is a self-imposed problem, or obstacle. Being self-imposed, it can be self-lifted.”

“The problems right now is that because we have such a partisan Congress, that even on those issues which historically you used to be able to expect some kind of constructive back and forth within the Congress and then between the Congress and the Executive Branch, that’s gotten frayed.”

“You will create a fundamental foundation of trust and stability in the core where there is the most distrust and instability if you extend New START and get going on serious defense to defense discussion about the weapons systems and the capabilities that each side is really worried about.”

Thomas Graham

“A lot of the things we have on the agenda with the Russians, whether it be Ukraine, dealing with Afghanistan, there will be some concerns about North Korea, deconfliction…those things are best done out of the public limelight where we can have the types of conversations that we need that get more confidential as people develop trust in one another and allow us some latitude for, if not resolving them entirely, at least easing them in some ways.”

“We’re always worried about Russian interference. It is a real issue…I think some of the discussion in the United States has become counterproductive. We begin to see Russians behind every bit of problem we have in this country. That, I think, undermines our own effort to deal with them effectively. But if we have a sufficient margin of victory, by either the democratic candidate or Trump, the issue of Russian interference will become less of a matter in American domestic politics, which will allow us to have a more balanced conversation.”

“We need to figure out how to restore normal functioning diplomatic relations. [That] doesn’t mean we’re going to agree, it doesn’t mean business as usual, but we need to talk to one another to find out what we think, where the red lines are, what the dangers are, if we want to protect American national interest going forward.”