Russia

Participants crafted approaches to avoiding further deterioration of EU-Russia relations and outlined roles for the Russian-Western European Diaspora.

On October 1-2, 2007, EWI co-sponsored the first European-Russian Forum in Brussels. Held in the European Parliament headquarters, the Forum was attended by more than 150 representatives of the Russian-speaking community living outside Russia in Europe as well as high-level Russian and EU officials, MPs, foreign policy experts, religious leaders and entrepreneurs. The two-day series of plenary sessions and workshops crafted approaches to avoiding further deterioration of EU-Russia relations and outlined key roles for the 10 million Russian-Western European diaspora in facilitating strategic partnership between the European Union and the Russian Federation.

On the first day of the Forum, EWI’s Founder, President and CEO John Edwin Mroz presented his views on Russia’s capacity to play a role of a major problem-solver in multilateral cooperation in Europe to address the 21st security challenges such as political radicalization, violent extremism and terrorism, energy, migration issues, cross-border cultural gaps and regional conflicts. He specifically highlighted the Russian G-8 initiative on public-private partnerships to counter terrorism and the need to further promote specific model projects in this area such as “countering of precious metals trafficking” advanced by Norilsk Nickel company, “global remittances” led by Citigroup and others.

EWI’s upcoming 5th Worldwide Security Conference in February 2008 at the World Customs Organization is EWI's next milestone in making such initiatives a vital part of its worldwide security network.

EWI's Ortwin Hennig, Greg Austin and Vladimir Ivanov served as panelists for the workshop on “EU-Russia Political Dialogue and Security Priorities in Europe” and presented EWI’s experience and recommendations for global security and conflict prevention issues.

The recommendations resulting from the Forum will be submitted to Russian and European government officials ahead of the EU-Russia Summit scheduled for the end of October in Portugal. Forum participants agreed to set up permanent expert groups, under the aegis of the European-Russian Forum, to tackel political dialogue and security issues, as well as the protection of human rights, migration, economic cooperation and to help consolidate Russian-speaking communities. EWI will be an active player in theese working groups, engaging the Forum and its participants in order to broaden its worldwide security network.

The first session of the Informal Public-Private Working Group on Precious Metals Trafficking organized by the EastWest Institute, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation and the Russian mining and metallurgical company Norilsk Nickel. The working group’s mandate is to further Russia's G8-endorsed initiative on public-private antiterrorist partnerships in accordance with the G8 Strategy for Partnerships between States and Businesses to Counter Terrorism adopted in November 2006 in Moscow.

The session was chaired by Anatoly Safonov, Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for International Cooperation in the Fight against Terrorism and Transnational Organized Crime, and attended by key experts from the Russian government, major international precious metals producers, forensic laboratories, law enforcement agencies and international organizations including the UN, WCO and OSCE.

Members of the working group analyzed the problem of illegally trafficked precious metals and links to terrorist financing. They also discussed the different ways in which existing and new technologies can help to easily and quickly identify the origins of raw materials containing precious metals. Finally, participants highlighted the need to devise viable recommendations to help international organizations and policy makers tackle this issue.

In the months to come, EWI will work to gather a competent group of government security and law enforcement officials and relevant experts as well as major companies who share a stake in this issue. This working group, together with key partners, is scheduled to introduce an international system of verification and certification that traces effectively the source of all raw materials containing precious metals at the Second Global Forum for Partnerships between States and Businesses to Counter Terrorism in Moscow in December 2007.

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs believes that the working group will constitute a model for further developing international public-private partnerships in the fight against terrorism and organized crime.

Ambassador John D. Negroponte, US Deputy Secretary of State, delivered the keynote address at the 2007 Awards Dinner on April 25 in Washington, DC.

The dinner was attended by dignitaries from business and government, including members of Congress and diplomats, media and civil society. It was part of EWI's US-Russia Constructive Agenda Initiative, a dynamic multi-year project bringing together leaders from various professions from both nations to craft new approaches to bilateral and global challenges. The initiative also includes public and private meetings, policy papers and conferences.

For nearly 30 years, the EastWest Institute has worked to bridge the divide between the United States and Europe on the one hand, and on the other, the Soviet Union until 1991 and after that Russia. Yet, 2008 appears to be a year of rising tensions endangering international order: While the West accepted Kosovo sovereignty, Russia denied any legal value to Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence. In the meantime, the NATO Bucharest summit held out the prospect of Georgia’s and Ukraine’s membership.

The adoption of a new US National Defense Strategy in April 2008 was shortly followed by a new Russian Foreign Policy Concept in July 2008. We now have to deal with a “Georgian war” that was waged at the beginning of August and that resulted in Russia’s recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

In order to discuss these recent developments, the meanings and security perceptions that Russia and Europe attach to them, as well as to investigate the broader implications it has for the East-West relationship, the EastWest Institute is setting up a EWI study group on Russia, Europe and the United States.

The study group will comprise invited specialists and officials with strong knowledge of the foreign policy and security approaches of these three actors, as well as of the evolving international security landscape. These specialists and officials will gather in three roundtable seminars from September to November 2008 with a view to preparing a report that will be presented to key governments. Based on the findings of EWI’s policy study group, subsequent activities for the study group might be identified as necessary to further a constructive relationship between Russia and NATO.

Themes:

• Substantial changes in Russia’s foreign policy approach?
• A dangerous act: NATO’s Bucharest agenda
• The US anti-missile defense shield in Eastern Europe
• The “Georgian War”: an application of Russia’s new foreign policy concept?
• The US elections’ impact on the US-Russian relationship
• Iraq, Kosovo, Iran and Chechnya - how much trust is left?
• The re-emergence of an old superpower: what is Russia’s new place in the international system?
• The East-West divide: Where are we heading?

Time and Venue:

EWI Brussels Center, rue de la Loi 85, 1000 Brussels

Tuesday, 30th September
 11-12.30 a.m., afterwards: informal lunch until 1 p.m.
 
Tuesday,28th October
 11-12.30 a.m., afterwards: informal lunch until 1 p.m.
 
Tuesday, 25th November
 11-12.30 a.m., afterwards: informal lunch until 1 p.m.

 By invitation only. Inquiries for participation welcome.

The World Customs Organization supports an initiative of national customs authorities to enhance existing procedures to rule out international trade of smuggled precious metals. Relevant recommendations resulted from the Second Meeting of the International Working Group on Countering Precious Metals Trafficking held in Brussels at WCO headquarters on October 25-26.

The meeting, co-organized by the Russian Mining and Metallurgical Company “Norilsk Nickel”, the Russian Foreign Ministry, the EastWest Institute and WCO, was attended by customs and law enforcement experts, platinum industry representatives and foreign policy officials from Russia, European Union, South Africa and other regions of the world particularly concerned by existing links between illicit trade of precious metals, organized crime and terrorism financing.

The Working Group acknowledged that enhancing customs controls should be a basic first step in curbing the black market of precious metals.  Within the next few months the Group will develop detailed suggestions on adjusting precious metals nomenclature as reflected in the WCO-managed Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System. The suggestions will help the interested national customs authorities initiate at WCO the necessary amendments to the Harmonized System.

 Providing customs worldwide with proper description of precious metals products is critical in blocking control loopholes used by criminals to safely transfer smuggled goods across borders and use them in money-laundering schemes.  The Working Group will also devise enhanced cost-effective methods of customs control procedures related to precious metals trade as well as industry due diligence in this area supported by  an advanced methodology to track the source of origin of  precious metals and stones. The methodology has been developed by Russian scientists and validated in the beginning of October by an international Peer Review Board including representatives of world leading forensic laboratories.

The Working Group on Precious Metals Trafficking was established within the framework of the G8-endorsed initiative on public-private antiterrorist partnerships in conformity with the Strategy for Partnerships between States and Businesses to Counter Terrorism, which was adopted at the Global Forum for Partnerships between States and Businesses to Counter Terrorism held in November 2006 in Moscow. The EastWest Institute has been involved in this process from the beginnings and considers it as a top priority in its Global Security Program.

U.S. and Russian experts met to discuss areas for cooperation to prevent nuclear terrorism.

The third meeting of EWI's Consortium on Security & Technology focused on critical infrastructure protection, including: physical resources, services, and information technology facilities, networks and infrastructure assets which, if disrupted or destroyed, would impact the health, safety, security and economic well-being of citizens and the ability of governments to function effectively.