President of the Moscow-based PIR Center and Director of the Geneva-based Centre russe d'études politiques Dr. Vladimir A. Orlov visited Washington D.C. to discuss current situation and prospects in the areas of nuclear nonproliferation and arms control, as well as, more generally, Russia-US dialogue on strategic issues, with representatives of US administration, to hold meeting at the NSC, DOD, State Department, as well as with the think tanks and foundations.

During his visit Dr. Orlov met with Dr. Gary S. Samore, WMD Coordinator, Executive Office of the President, National Security Council; Ms. Laura Holgate, Senior Director at the National Security Council; Mr. Joseph Cirincione, President of the  Ploughshares Fund and members of PIR Advisory Board; Mr. Jon B. Wolfsthal, Special Advisor to the Vice President for Nonproliferation and Nuclear Security and Director for Nonproliferation National Security Council; Mr. Robert Einhorn, Special Advisor to the Secretary of State and member of PIR Advisory Board; Mr. Andrew Weber, Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Nuclear & Chemical & Biological Defense Programs; Mr. Michael Nacht, Assistant Secretary of Defense; Mr. Scott Davis, Deputy Director, Office of Multilateral Nuclear and Security Affairs, Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation of the US Department of State; Mr. Joby Warrick, Intelligence Correspondent of the Washington Post; President of the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) Joan Rolfing and her colleagues at the NTI,  among others.

Dr. Orlov was received by Sergey Kislyak, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the United States of America.

Obviously, such issues as START process, missile defense developments, preparations for the NPT Review Conference, and Iran were in the center of the discussions. «United States and Russia should build a non-governmental joint group on nuclear nonproliferation. Such a group should become a watchdog which would react both at success stories and at failures on implementation of gov-to-gov agreements, with critiques, public statements, and policy recommendations, in order to help fix the problems and find new opportunities for bilateral cooperation,” - said Dr. Orlov.

More information on the Russia-US relations can be found on the PIR Center's website.

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