. >> on behalf of myself and andrew kuchins who is director -- i want to welcome you to a discussion on bilateral relations on the eve of the g-8 summit meeting, and during the period to lead up to the vote to ratify russia's exception to the wto. since 2009, the reset in relations between russia and the united states, there have been many successes in the relationship, including the new start treaty corporation on afghanistan, iran and north korea. civilian nuclear power and other areas. but there have been notable differences over syria, missile defense, and the conduct of parliamentary elections last month. both president putin and obama have called for a deepening of economic cooperation between the two countries. the russia is expected to ratify -- we expect 30 days after that, roughly, that russia will become a member of the world trade organization. for the united states to take advantage of the new market openings in the russian market, congress must pass legislation to grant russia permanent normal trade relations treatment. the panel will focus on prospects for improving re

with that introduction, i would like to yield to my colleague, andrew kuchins, director of our russia and eurasia program or did he will moderate today. >> thank you very much, meredith. welcome everybody to csis. it is great to see everyone and we have an absolutely superb group of speakers. let me make haste and make some brief introductions so people can make some remarks. we will start up with our two ambassadors to each other's countries. worst of all, the current ambassador from the russian federation to my right, one of the most distinguished and long serving successful members of the russian ministry of foreign affairs, he has been here, of course, in washington since 2008. he is an ambassador and has overseen the russian side of things often called the reset. he has also served as russia's ambassador and simultaneously the ambassador to nato and is a foreign minister. sergey kislyak it is a wonderful pleasure to see you here. our second speaker will be doctor john beyrle, who has just returned with a successful stint at the russian federation. he arrived back in january 2012.