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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MARCH 27, 2009

CHICAGO, IL – Over 80 distinguished guests attended a reception for Chicago 2016 hosted by Russian Pointe Foundation at Russian Pointe Dance Boutique on March 25, 2009. The reception brought together prominent Russian-speaking professionals and representatives from government, business and the arts, to learn about Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics, and to be introduced to Russian Pointe Foundation and its goals.

Guests enjoyed a sumptuous selection of food and drink, including Russian and Greek specialties and sushi, while socializing and listening to speakers Mike Murnane, Alexander Etman and Aleksandra Efimova.

Mike Murnane, Chicago 2016 director of community relations, spoke about Chicago’s plans and the Olympic bid process. Currently, Chicago 2016 is preparing for the April 2nd visit by members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). In October, representatives of bid cities throughout the world will gather in Copenhagen for final presentations and the IOC’s decision. President Obama is expected to accompany the Chicago delegation.

“Chicago is a vibrant, ethnically diverse city, making it a superb location for the Olympics,” said Aleksandra Efimova, president of Russian Pointe Foundation and a member of the Outreach Advisory Council of Chicago 2016.
In a welcome address, Alexander Etman, founder and publisher of Svet Russian Media, focused on the Russian-speaking community and its participation in planning and hosting the Olympics, including the potential involvement of Chicago’s previous Olympic athletes.

The reception was the first official event for Russian Pointe Foundation, which was founded to promote and enrich Russian-American contributions to the Chicago community, in political, social, artistic and business spheres.

“We want to bring people together, to unite them in projects that benefit our community, creating bridges among organizations and individuals” said Efimova. “The Foundation will encourage collaboration, inform the Russian-speaking community about important organizations and events, and enhance the public’s awareness of Russian-speaking culture and contributions.”

Support for the Olympic bid and the Foundation’s goals came from guests including representatives from the governor’s office, the Chicago Association of Russian-speaking Physicians, The Field Museum, Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University, Lifeway Foods, Inc. (the first Russian-owned, publicly-traded U.S. company), and many more.

The reception was sponsored by Cartier, Russian Standard Vodka, Russian Tea Time Restaurant, The Dime Group, Venus Greek Restaurant, Lamirage Restaurant, Lion Distributors and Foodville Sushi. Media sponsors included Chicago Social Magazine, Svet Russian Media, 1240 AM Russian Radio OSA, Kontinent Media, Chicago Sun-Times and What’s Happening Community Newspapers.

Photos by Elizaveta Efimova
1. Mike Murnane- Chicago 2016 with presentation on Olympic Bid.
2. Leonard Mogul- Kontinent Media Group, Eva Sieradzki- Office of the Governor (IL), Igor Tsesarski- Kontinent Media Group.
3. Leonard Mogul- Kontinent Media Group, Mike Murnane-Chicago 2016, Deb Fiddelke- Chicago 2016, Aleksandra Efimova- Russian Pointe
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A once a year event!
The Third Millennium International Mathematical Olympiad for Grades 5-12
will take place on 1 March. It is on line and free.
Join nearly one million students from more than 50 countries that have
participated in the Olympiad since 2001.
For info:
schoolplus-online.com
and
cut-the-knot.org

Stephen Cohen is professor of Russian and Slavic Studies at New York University and the author of several books on Russia and the Former Soviet Union. He was recently awarded the highest state honor given to foreigners, the Order of Friendship, “for his large contribution to strengthening Russian-American cooperation,” by the Russian President Dmitri Medvedev. “In effect, we are in a new Cold War today and we need anti-Cold War presidents… The two sides view each other as enemies. What we have to hope for is that the leadership on both sides has the wisdom, the vision and the power to change that, because in foreign policy, more than in domestic policy, leaders matters most. If they don’t, we are in deep trouble.”

Question: There was a great deal of optimism at the outset of this decade that Russia and the Untied States could work as “strategic partners” on numerous internationals security issues. Instead, as this decade comes to an end, the relationship between the two countries has deteriorated to a level of animosity not seen since the end of the Cold War. What happened?

http://www.washprofile.org/en/node/8155
Sebastien Gay, Professor of Economics at University of Chicago.
Question: What is your comment on the recent economic crisis?
Gay: It is devastating. People are scared about losing their jobs, their homes, their retirement, and their college savings funds. It is a very stressful time. I think we are seeing an example of unregulated traders manipulating the market system where people bought and sold bad credits without looking to see what it really was.

Question: An ordinary person might think or question – could that be an eventual or ultimate end of capitalism?
Gay: It is a very good question. I don’t think this is the end of capitalism per se. What we see here is how people manipulated the capitalistic system in such a way that it would be bound to fail. Although it has had terrible consequences for consumers we are seeing a weeding out of those companies that made these bad decisions (barring the bailout). The bailout was a decision to get capitalism back on its feet, or at least an attempt to do it.

Question: So it is rather a mismanagement of the system but not the system itself.

by Stephen Hess

One can think of an incoming president’s tasks as “The Three Ps”: Personnel, Process, Policy. He must review the policy commitments he made during the campaign. In what order should he try to honor them? Some will take time. But because President Franklin Roosevelt created a remarkable record in his first hundred days, all presidents know that “100 days” is a marker the media will use to judge them.
Stephen Hess is Senior Fellow Emeritus at the Brookings Institution and Distinguished Research Professor of Media and Public Affairs at the George Washington University. His most recent book is What Do We Do Now? A Workbook for the President-Elect.
Presidential elections in the United States take place every fourth year on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November -- November 4 in 2008 -- with the winner taking office, as it is written in the Constitution, “at noon on the 20th day of January.” This gap between election and inauguration is a uniquely American phenomenon. If there is to be a new president, it is a period of great interest around the world. It is also a period with a history of confusion and even, on occasion, dire policy consequences. This does not happen in parliamentary systems, where there is instant governmental turnover.

By Anatol Lieven

Every few months or even weeks, a new issue seems to arise to create new hostility to Russia in the US, and often Europe too. Sometimes this is based on real conflicts of views or interests; as for example the question of Russian and West European ownership of parts of each other’s energy networks. Often, however, the issues are essentially minor, and of no real significance to important Western interests.

And in the great majority of cases, alas, reporting and comment by much of the Western media, and statements by Western politicians, reflect a frightening degree of bias and ignorance – when not outright disinformation; a situation worsened by the tendency to select Russian commentators in US newspapers only from one narrow section of Russian liberal opinion.

By Brian J. Grim and David Masci

Scores of different religious groups coexist in the United States, all enjoying the right to follow their faiths with the legal protection of the U.S. Constitution.

Brian J. Grim, senior research fellow in religion and world affairs, and David Masci, senior research fellow in religion and law, are with the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. The Forum is a project of the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan organization in Washington, D.C., which provides information on issues, attitudes, and trends shaping the United States and the world.

The United States is one of the most religiously diverse countries in the world. Indeed, with adherents from all of the world’s major religions, the United States is truly a nation of religious minorities. Although Protestantism remains the dominant strain of Christianity in the United States, the Protestant tradition is divided into dozens of major denominations, all with unique beliefs, religious practices, and histories. Furthermore, Protestant Christianity’s dominance in the United States has waned in recent years.

Andrew MORAVCSIK, director of the European Union Program at Princeton University

Politics stops at the water's edge. Or so voters in the Western democracies like to believe. When our security is at stake, we expect elected leaders to think coolly and strategically, advancing the national interest.

Iraq has done much to discredit such hopes. Now comes another American-inspired folly—the brewing transatlantic spat over the deployment of a primitive antiballistic-missile defense system in Eastern Europe. At bottom, it has little to do with security, and everything to do with symbolism and spin. And in the end it is destined to come back to bite its adherents in their collective geostrategic backside.

Ann ODEGOVA, graduate student of journalism of the Moscow State University and of the American University in Moscow

It is not a secret now that today relations of Russia with different countries which could be our faithful allies are becoming less cloudless. This year it became especially obvious. But is it necessary to burn bridges? Flexibility is necessary in these relations.

Is it correct to translate all relations on a monetary basis? It was with Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan. Recent New Year's conflict with Byelorussia (White Russia) once again roughly naked essence of the future changes.

We do not have allies. Love for money has remained. Oh, pity calculation! Everything is seized by it. We should only recognize its domination which has aggravated political situation.

Gary Hamburg, Professor of European History at Claremont McKenna College, and Johannes F. Linn, Executive Director of the Wolfensohn Center for Development at the Brookings Institution analyze the current state of U.S.-Russian relations.

— How would you characterize the current U.S.- Russian relationship: are we in fact heading towards a new cold war?

GARY HAMBURG, Professor of European History at Claremont McKenna College, author of several books on Russia and the Soviet Union: U.S.-Russian relations have become difficult for various reasons:
Putin thinks the United States has become a force for instability in the world, by which he means that the U.S. intervention in Iraq has destabilized the Middle East but also that U.S. sponsorship of NATO expansion has disturbed Russia's 'near abroad'; Putin also thinks that the United States has not duly recognized Russian power, political and economic; the Bush administration is disappointed by what it sees as Putin's meddling in Ukrainian internal affairs, by its unhelpful attitude toward Georgia, by its use of oil as an instrument of political intimidation in Europe, and, of course, by the continuing Russian use of force in Chechnya (which reminds Washington of Soviet habits, even though the tacit agreement is for Washington to 'look the other way' while Chechnya is pacified and to classify the suppression of Chechen independence as a part of the international 'war on terror.')

Sergey Markedonov, Ph.D., is the head of the Interethnic Relations Department at Moscow’s Institute of Political and Military Analysis.
Special to Russia Profile

The United States and Georgia Sign a Strategic Partnership Agreement

Contrary to the Americans’ desire, Georgia recently failed to secure a Membership Action Plan in NATO. But this doesn’t mean that the United States has abandoned its policy of spreading democracy in the Southern Caucasus region. On the contrary, some historic examples demonstrate that the country is willing and ready to form cooperative relationships with non-NATO member states whenever its interests so demand.

For the Southern Caucasus region, the new (political and calendar) year started with the signing of the Charter on Strategic Partnership between the United States and Georgia. The six-page-long document was signed by the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on behalf of the United States, and by the Foreign Affairs Minister Grigol Vashadze on the part of Georgia.

In the grand scheme of things, the appearance of such a document was not a sensation. It is no secret that by now, Washington has been patronizing Tbilisi for a few years. Georgia (just like other countries of the Southern Caucasus) is a part of America’s ambitious geopolitical project titled “The Greater Middle East.” A special role in it has been assigned to Georgia, for a number of reasons.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Susan Sizemore
615-584-3190
877-201-2373

Bridgestone Americas Announces Launch of Third Annual
Safety Scholars Video Contest at Chicago Auto Show
Popular teen program integral part of company’s driver safety education initiatives;

2009 contest includes new environmental component

CHICAGO (Feb. 11, 2009) – Bridgestone Americas announced at the 2009 Chicago Auto Show that, as part of its ongoing commitment to automotive safety education and due to the incredible popularity and success of the program, it is launching its third annual Safety Scholars Video Contest.

Targeted to young drivers ages 16-21, Safety Scholars is a contest in which entrants create short auto safety-themed videos. This year, another topic – automotive environmentalism – has been made available to entrants, extending the message of the Bridgestone Group’s “One Team, One Planet” global environmental initiative.