Russia Sets the Terms for Coming in From the Cold
The Financial Times comments that the latest buzzword in Moscow is modernization. Everyone from President Dmitry Medvedev to assorted economists, commentators, bankers and businesspeople are using it.
Another big theme in Russian government circles, on the face of it unrelated, is the proposal for a "new European security architecture." Moscow wants an agreement to bind all the existing institutions of European security, including NATO and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, into a framework that would give it an effective veto, especially on any NATO enlargement.
What binds the two themes of security and modernization together is a desire in the Kremlin to come in from the cold. But what is equally clear is that any return to warmer relations with the West should not do anything to disturb the power structure in Moscow or its regional sphere of influence.