US-Russian Cooperation

Eisenhower Institute Holds More Meetings in Russia for Project on US-Russian Cooperation in Space

 

Major-General Vasiliy Tsibliev, former cosmonaut and now First Deputy-Chief at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, discusses his experiences with Susan Eisenhower, Roald Sagdeev, and Tyler Nottberg in Star City, outside of Moscow.

MOSCOW, May 25-June 1, 2002 -- During the week of May 25-June 1, members of the Eisenhower Institute staff traveled to Moscow to conduct additional research and interviews for its project, Ten Years Later: Assessing US-Russian Engagement in Space. Institute President and the project's Principal Investigator Susan Eisenhower, along with Institute Senior Associate Dr. Roald Sagdeev, led the delegation. Meetings were held with, among others, the Director of the Russian Space Agency Yuri Koptev, former Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, various cosmonauts, members of the Russian Duma who deal with space issues, and scientists at the Russian Academy of Sciences' Space Research Institute, including Director Alec Galeev. The Institute also visited Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space. Tereshkova, who heads The Russian Center for International Scientific and Cultural Cooperation, has cooperated on Eisenhower Institute projects in the past, including the highly dynamic and successful Chautauqua Meetings in 1986, the first of which was co-sponsored by the Eisenhower Institute and included a cultural exchange of US and Soviet jazz artists led by Grover Washington, Jr.

Cosmonaut Wall of Fame at Moscow Mission Control in Korolev City, Russia. The central panel at the bottom shows Cosmonaut Vasily Tsibliev on the far left and US Astronaut Mike Foale on the far right. Both men were present on Mir Station in June of 1997.

Meetings were held to discuss the Russian perspective on the last ten years of US-Russian cooperation in space. They addressed the work that has been done by both sides to integrate programs, including cooperation on the International Space Station and on various space science projects. Meetings also focused on the impact that the changing political climate in Russia has had on space cooperation these last ten years and how it has affected decision-making.

In addition to concentrating on space, the Institute also conducted meetings for the project's comparative components by speaking with various Russian business leaders, including the President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Arkady Volsky. Work on this component of the project will be further supplemented by a workshop being put on by the Institute and the US-Russia Business Forum on June 5, which will be soliciting the US perspective on the lessons learned from the last ten years of US-Russian cooperation in key areas of business such as energy, financial services, and information technology.