A More Principled Reset

Reports are coming in from Mikhail Kasyanov’s visit to Washington.  Below is from Fred Hiatt of the Washington Post:

Kasyanov, himself a former prime minister, dropped by The Post on Monday — the same day, as it happens, that Russia’s president was awarding the highest state honors to Anna Chapman and her band of sleeper agents who spent years waiting to spy on America. He was visiting America, he said, to gauge whether Americans still care about Russia — and, if so, whether he can persuade us that “reset” ought to become “more principled.”  (…)

“We all know that Putin and his group in power — they’re not indifferent to foreign opinion,” Kasyanov said.

As to the great guessing game in the West about whether Medvedev is seeking to supplant his patron, Kasyanov just laughed. “Medvedev is simply a senior assistant to Putin, temporarily occupying the position of president of Russia,” he said. “He can’t accomplish anything that Putin doesn’t allow.”