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2006

Russia: In Transition or Intransigent?

Members

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Hon. Alcee Hastings

Chairman

Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe

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Hon. Sam Brownback

Ranking Member

Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe

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Hon. Chris Smith

Ranking Minority Member

Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe

Witnesses

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Amb. Daniel Fried

Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs

State Department

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Sarah E. Mendelson

Director of Human Rights and Security Initiative, and Senior Fellow, Russia and Eurasia Program

Center for Strategic and International Studies

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E. Wayne Merry

Senior Associate

American Foreign Policy Council

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Lilia Shevtsova

Senior Associate

Moscow Carnegie Center

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Jeffrey Hahn, Ph.D.

Professor of Political Science

Villanova University

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Igor Zevelev

Washington Bureau Chief of RIA Novosti

Russian News and Information Agency

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Rajan Menon

Monroe J. Rathbone Professor of International Relations

Lehigh University

This hearing, which Commissioner Alcee L. Hastings chaired, focused, on Russia, a country whose role had become larger and larger, with a more assertive take on Georgia, Russia’s neighbor to the south, as well as concurrent positions in the United Nations, the Group of 8, the Council of Europe, and the OSCE. In spite of an initially positive looking trajectory of representative government after the dissolution of the U.S.S.R., since 2001, the Russian government had begun to recentralize power again. This has been perhaps best exemplified by the government’s curtailing of civil liberties.

While the Russian Federation has made progress in certain arenas as far as human rights are concerned (i.e. having heat in the winter, getting paid on time, and access to the judicial process), there has been a vocal and growing minority that is deeply concerned about Russia’s trajectory, and the Russian government has met these individuals’ concerns with heavy-handedness and brutality. To address this situation, Commissioner Hastings expressed the need to find new ways to have more frequent interaction and with all governmental branches, as well as a substantial and sustainable bilateral dialogue at the level of civil society.

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