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Diary Suggestion - LG

Released on 2012-10-18 17:00 GMT

Email-ID 5535910
Date 2011-05-26 19:06:30
President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev met on the
sidelines of G8 today. In the press conference they said that the US and
Russia could find an approach to meet both countries' needs over bmd.
However, then Medvedev said that it would not be solved for another decade
- which is after the due dates for the US plans to be deployed. In short,
nothing was decided and there is no indication anything will be decided
under these presidents. It is a full stand-off.

However, the issue that the US and Russia most likely seriously discussed
cooperatively was Afghanistan. As we've been discussing, Russia is
seriously starting to freak out about the US leaving Afghanistan. Russia
is worried about militancy coming north and an ability for Afghanistan to
increase its drug production, which would go north. Russia wants to
support the US efforts there as much as it can in order for the US to not
leave precipitously and cause further instability. Russia is also
interested in the US continuing to dump billions into an Afghan security
force. All this to keep the focus on the US and inside of Afghanistan,
instead of north to Central Asia. So Russia has offered for the US to
increase its transit via Russia as much as they need -- which comes at a
good time with Pakistan. And Russia is supplying fuel to the US and other

So though all the same disagreements aren't seeing any movement, Russia
and the US are actually on the same page about a critical topic which is
keeping the peace for now.

Lauren Goodrich
Senior Eurasia Analyst
T: 512.744.4311
F: 512.744.4334