Andrei Piontkovsky shares his opinions - and his alone - about the motivations behind the second trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky.  He says that it functions as a kind of insurance policy to keep President Dmitry Medvedev reigned in tight with the siloviki.

Per Bob's earlier post on the growing divide in Russia policy circles over what the Obama Administration can expect from today's Kremlin, here Russian political analyst Andrei Piontkovsky (survivor of an extremism trial) answers some of the arguments put forth in recent publications.  Unfortunately the sound was lost on some other parts of the interview.

The clock is ticking down to the much awaited first visit of President Barack Obama to Moscow on July 6-8, and the once high expectations of "reset diplomacy" are undergoing a sharp re-negotiation among the policy circles of Washington think tanks.  Will this be a breakthrough in relations, and the landing of a new strategic arms agreement?  Or just the exchange of symbolic politic credits, allowing each leader to walk away with at least the perceptions they were hoping to achieve?While there has always been rather sharp division between two different camps on Russia policy inside the beltway, this battle of rhetoric has particularly heated up in recent weeks.  First we had an op/ed from Andrei Piontkovsky, alleging that several leading minds on Russia in ...

Andrei Piontkovsky has an incendiary column published through Project Syndicate alleging the economic interests of some Russia commentators in the United States.  This one is bound to raise some controversy.

The Kremlin's achievements in securing the help of Americans willing to offer their influence are equally impressive. Indeed, the Obama administration's Russia policy is being nurtured with advice from people who have no official position in the administration, but close business ties to Russia and the Kremlin: Henry Kissinger, James A. Baker, Thomas Graham, and Dimitri Simes. The first two are major geopolitical figures; Graham and Simes are respected as outstanding Russia specialists. They write key reports for the administration, and shuttle between Moscow and Washington, coordinating the parameters of the Obama administration's effort to "reset" the bilateral relationship.

Like Schroeder, all these

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