Ever since Barack Obama’s first relatively friendly state visit to Moscow, Washington and the Kremlin have engaged in a showdown of gestures over the elephant in the room:  the legitimacy of Russia’s claim to a privileged sphere of influences.  Directly after meeting with Obama, Prime Minister Putin did some male bonding with a large motorcycle gang, before sending them off toward Crimea, Ukraine under the RF flag.  Medvedev proceeded directly from the G8 in Italy to visit South Ossetia and Abkhazia, but not before threatening to place Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad.  As for Washington, today VP Joseph Biden landed in Kiev, Ukraine, and will travel onward to visit some friends in Georgia.  These gestures on behalf of both sides say just as much as any summit speech. 

On a related note, yesterday the Washington Post ran an editorial responding to the open letter signed by more than a dozen former democratic leaders of the post-Soviet East, warning the West on the vital importantance of democracy promotion in the East and the destabilizing threat of current Russian policy.