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| U.S. Center for Russian Studies to Shut Moscow Office | U.S. Center for Russian Studies to Shut Moscow Office |
| (7 months later) | |
| MOSCOW — The Kennan Institute, a research center co-founded by George F. Kennan, the seminal Cold War theorist, that has fostered the study of Russia and the former Soviet Union since 1974, will shutter its office in Moscow this spring. | |
| News of the closing, confirmed by the head of the Kennan Institute, comes as a number of large United States aid and academic programs here that flowered after the collapse of the Soviet Union have been plagued by budget cuts and frigid relations between the two countries recently. | News of the closing, confirmed by the head of the Kennan Institute, comes as a number of large United States aid and academic programs here that flowered after the collapse of the Soviet Union have been plagued by budget cuts and frigid relations between the two countries recently. |
| “You can see how all of the anchors that were created back in the ’90s to link us with American scholars are ceasing to exist,” Ivan Kurilla, the head of the international relations department at Volgograd State University, said in a telephone interview. | “You can see how all of the anchors that were created back in the ’90s to link us with American scholars are ceasing to exist,” Ivan Kurilla, the head of the international relations department at Volgograd State University, said in a telephone interview. |
| Mr. Kurilla and 11 other Russian academics who have received grants from the center published an open letter on Monday protesting the decision and called the closing “inappropriate, ill timed and extremely harmful to the long-term prospects of U.S.-Russian relations.” | Mr. Kurilla and 11 other Russian academics who have received grants from the center published an open letter on Monday protesting the decision and called the closing “inappropriate, ill timed and extremely harmful to the long-term prospects of U.S.-Russian relations.” |
| As relations between Russia and the United States have soured diplomatically, many informal collaborations, like those between research centers and nongovernmental organizations in the two countries, have also scaled back their work. | As relations between Russia and the United States have soured diplomatically, many informal collaborations, like those between research centers and nongovernmental organizations in the two countries, have also scaled back their work. |
| The process has been punctuated by political interventions like the expulsion of the United States Agency for International Development by the Russian government in 2012 and by a budget shortfall that forced the United States to defund grants for research and language study in former Soviet bloc countries last year. | The process has been punctuated by political interventions like the expulsion of the United States Agency for International Development by the Russian government in 2012 and by a budget shortfall that forced the United States to defund grants for research and language study in former Soviet bloc countries last year. |
| Matthew Rojansky, the head of the Kennan Institute, said that while the center’s Moscow office had withstood police investigations under a new Russian law requiring certain nongovernmental organizations to register as “foreign agents,” the death of a major sponsor and the loss of United States government funding for research proved decisive. | Matthew Rojansky, the head of the Kennan Institute, said that while the center’s Moscow office had withstood police investigations under a new Russian law requiring certain nongovernmental organizations to register as “foreign agents,” the death of a major sponsor and the loss of United States government funding for research proved decisive. |
| The Kennan Center will seek new ways to fund conferences and other programming in Russia, he said. | The Kennan Center will seek new ways to fund conferences and other programming in Russia, he said. |
| “Those who are pragmatically minded and thinking about the future will realize that there is a future there,” Mr. Rojansky said. “Those who are simply angry because of the difficult world that we all live in now, where U.S.-Russia relations are very complicated and the atmosphere for scholarship in Russia is very hard, if they want to find an outlet to complain about that, then they will.” | “Those who are pragmatically minded and thinking about the future will realize that there is a future there,” Mr. Rojansky said. “Those who are simply angry because of the difficult world that we all live in now, where U.S.-Russia relations are very complicated and the atmosphere for scholarship in Russia is very hard, if they want to find an outlet to complain about that, then they will.” |
| The Kennan Institute was founded by the Washington-based Wilson Center, the historian S. Frederick Starr and Mr. Kennan, who popularized the term “containment” in an anonymous 1947 article in Foreign Affairs that has come to be known as “The X Article.” | The Kennan Institute was founded by the Washington-based Wilson Center, the historian S. Frederick Starr and Mr. Kennan, who popularized the term “containment” in an anonymous 1947 article in Foreign Affairs that has come to be known as “The X Article.” |
| The doctrine of the same name, which Mr. Kennan came to oppose, dictated that the United States should prevent the spread of Communism abroad, and it was influential in the country’s interventions in Korea and Vietnam. | The doctrine of the same name, which Mr. Kennan came to oppose, dictated that the United States should prevent the spread of Communism abroad, and it was influential in the country’s interventions in Korea and Vietnam. |
| The Kennan Center opened its Moscow office shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union. | The Kennan Center opened its Moscow office shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union. |
| Alexander Okun, a Russian historian who also signed his name to the open protest, called the Moscow office a “center of connections” for academics from disparate regions across Russia. | Alexander Okun, a Russian historian who also signed his name to the open protest, called the Moscow office a “center of connections” for academics from disparate regions across Russia. |
| “I think it is not just a great loss for us, but a great loss for Americans, too,” he said. | “I think it is not just a great loss for us, but a great loss for Americans, too,” he said. |